Hands up everyone who, when they heard we'd lost the toss and had to bat today feared the worst?
And those who, when we slipped to 16-2 with both openers back in the pavilion, thought we'd struggle to stay batting at tea? The ball was moving around with the odd one lifting and others keeping a little low. Surrey must have fancied their chances.
That being the case, to close on 375-7 represents another fine day's cricket from Derbyshire, watched for some of the time by Geoff Miller. He cannot fail to have been impressed by the precocious talents of Messrs Hughes and Redfern, who rallied the innings after Wes Durston helped Hughes turn 16-2 to 107-3 at lunch.
In the afternoon the two young left-handers batted beautifully and although there was a flurry of wickets post-tea, another stand of 50 between the most experienced players in the side, skipper Luke Sutton and Steffan Jones saw us to a thoroughly satisfactory close.
It was a fine effort by Chesney Hughes, a player of extraordinary talent who is still closer to his 20th birthday than 21st. The youngsters cannot fail to have impressed the watching Martin Guptill, who started his county career with a hooked six then fell to a caught and bowled from a ball that apparently 'stopped'on him. It happens, but there'll be plenty of good days from the talented Kiwi.
As always, we'll not know how good a score this is until they bat on it. There's plenty of talent down their order and Mark Ramprakash will want to possibly bow out from Derbyshire grounds with a good score.
Yet we're very much in this game and ahead at present. Another 50-75 runs tomorrow would be nice and then we'll see where the game goes from there - if the weather allows it, of course.
Again though, top marks for the boys today. You can't fault the battling spirit and it augurs well for the rest of the campaign.
Good batting today but a worry over the Groenewald situation. He was our best bowler last season and has done well again this season. What we offer him to stay will show the ambitions of the club under its new regime. No replacement for Khwaja in the 20/20is already a worry about our ambitions.
ReplyDeletePerhaps putting us in suggests that Surrey aren't worried about batting last - partly because we only have part-time spinners, and partly because the probable loss of Monday to rain increases the chances of a run-chase on the last afternoon that they are equipped for, and I'm not sure our bowling is.
ReplyDeleteI have worries about the bowling in this match - nothing I've seen of Turner yet convinces me that he'll deliver and the years might finally be catching up on Jones
However, this was another good day, and on my consistency index, the ninth consecutive day that Derbyshire dominated or broke even on. We don't know how the pitch will play out over four / three days, but at the very least, we are in control of our own destiny on it. There were two or three points - 16 for 2, immediately after lunch at 108 for 3, and after the post-tea slump - when we'd have expected to see the innings collapse. It didn't, and there is some resilience here that we've not seen for a couple of years.
It's time who ever is running our club made a statement on the Groenewald situation. Again though it's more proof that we must be the worst informed spectators of any professional sports club in the country.
ReplyDeleteWe are very lucky that John Morris got some of the 'better' players on longer contracts and we know he tried to get Smith and Groenewald to sign extended deals. Who is sorting players contracts out now?
ReplyDeleteChris Gayle left out of West Indies side. A good enough replacement for Khwaja for the 20/20s for us?
ReplyDeleteGayle doesn't need county cricket as it doesn't pay enough. He earned a few hundred thousand in the IPl and will comfortably make a million next year after his exploits. Why would he come to us, even if we pushed the boat out, for £50K?
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see it, but it isn't going to happen. He could make that money in interest sitting on a beach...
Maybee if we got Peter Gadsby to chuck a few quid in. If fellow division 2 sides Gloucester can sign Murali and Middlesex can sign Gilchrist then why not?
ReplyDeleteThe difference is that Gilchrist and Murali are effectively done apart from IPL and T20 (and Murali has a dodgy shoulder and knees) Gayle is at the height of his powers and would cost money that even Gadsby and Grant would struggle to put together. We can dream (me included) but it won't happen. Sorry...
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