Derbyshire v Lancashire Vitality Blast

I didn't see all of last night's game, but once again it illustrated the frailties of this side in this format. 

The batting is capable of scoring 200, but they have to, because the bowling isn't especially strong. It is hard to criticise Aitchison, who hasn't missed a game this season and must be tired, but his lines and lengths were off last night, as they were against Yorkshire. He is an outstanding red ball bowler but not yet the real deal in the white ball game.

The same goes for Andersson. The six wickets against Leicestershire seem a distant memory and the combined five overs for 84 runs were the issue last night. But it can happen at T20, to anyone and McDermott, who has struggled to buy a run, and Shadab put the game out of Derbyshire's reach with powerful, clean hitting, albeit aided by too many balls that were there to be hit.

Montgomery returned excellent figures, while Potts had a fine all round game and continues to develop. The two overseas did OK, with Atif's final over, chock full of fast yorkers, a stand out. Why it has taken until now to show these is a moot point. 

The batting? Basically it confirmed my assertion of two days ago that we don't chase well and contained several echoes of Clive Dunn's Corporal Jones character in Dad's Army, running around shouting 'DON'T PANIC!'

Did Madsen need to step away and play the shot at the end of the power play that turned a good one into something average? Did Montgomery need to go for six and hole out on the boundary edge with men back, when we were ahead of the rate and he had just come in? Did Donald, after a sparkling innings, need to go big once again, having done all the hard work and got it down to 79 off nine? Meanwhile, my frustration with Basra continues. He is clearly a fine player but appears only to have an 'on' or 'off' switch with nothing in between. 71 needed off eight overs, when he too tried to repeat a shot he had just played and also holed out. It only needed common sense from there and it appeared to have left town..

Perhaps rather than getting involved in range-hitting golf simulations, the players might benefit more from watching videos of how Dean Jones, Peter Kirsten and Mohammad Azharuddin chased down totals. A boundary an over, work the spaces in the field, run hard, limit the dot balls. In the modern game, with modern bats, you *should* make a run chase of single digits per over. Sadly, the Derbyshire mantra appears to be 'six or bust' and too often for taste it isn't six...

There will be assertions that 'we can still qualify' but supporters know these are empty promises. We don't bowl well as a unit and we don't chase totals. Opponents will play on this - I know I would - and four wins from four against Durham, Lancashire, Leicestershire and Somerset (reigning champions, no less..) isn't going to happen.

Once again, Derbyshire illustrated that there is talent a-plenty within the ranks, but until we play better AS A TEAM and manage game situations better, they won't be making space in the trophy cabinet anytime soon.