The T20 campaign

While the T20 campaign doesn't finish for Derbyshire until the weekend, the chance of progression disappeared with the defeat to Leicestershire and so the final game, against Yorkshire, effectively becomes one with bragging rights alone at stake.

Suggestions that our season is over are premature and silly. There is still a chance of winning the section in the Pro 40, while a decent run in the Championship could yet see us make a late challenge for promotion. Fanciful maybe, but look at the respective tables and it is hard to dispute if we get our act together.

As for the T20, it was once again a curate's egg of a campaign, mixing some very good with an occasional performance of a shambolic nature. Doing the double over Warwickshire, beating Yorkshire and Durham and probably winning the return against the latter were fine efforts against better sides than us. We should also have beaten Nottinghamshire at Derby and Leicestershire in either game, while the Worcestershire game at the County Ground was gift-wrapped and only needed opening.

Realistically, until we start to win our share of the close games and beat the teams that we should do, we will not move to another level as a side. Such things come from experience, of course, but there are enough players in the side among the tyros to be winning our share of these and showing a little more nous when it matters. If we can beat division one sides with some style, beating the Worcestershires and Northamptonshires of this world should be a doddle with a similar attitude.

Progression will be dependent on several factors, primarily the retention or replacement of key personnel. We know now that Steffan Jones will retire at the season's end, a major part of our T20 side gone. Greg Smith will probably go too, though his performances have flattered to deceive on occasion and he has played little part in this campaign. Should Tim Groenewald also leave, however, it would leave a major hole in the side that will take some filling. I doubt Leicestershire would have made the target last weekend were he available, but that's life and someone else needs to step into the breach and make a name. I hope that Groenewald stays and realises that opening the bowling for Derbyshire is more rewarding than being first/second change elsewhere. Money will be a major factor, but I think that Derbyshire will make a good cricketer a fair offer - the rest is up to him.

One persistent anonymous contributor has harped on about the lack of a second overseas player, something I've covered before and don't intend to go over again. Suffice to say that the failure to replace Usman Khawaja wasn't for the lack of trying. By the same token, had such a player come in, a batsman may well have taken Ross Whiteley's place, while a bowler would have had Tom Knight's. Who were the biggest successes of the campaign...?

Be sure though that those two players will face their challenges in summers ahead. Both have the talent to go a long way, but cricket form ebbs and flows for most people. Jon Clare had his detractors in the T20, but the young all-rounder is gradually returning to his form of two/three years back and will be a huge asset next year, with a near injury-free season behind him. The margin of error for all bowlers in T20 is tiny, the game being heavily weighted in favour of the batsmen. Big bats and short boundaries make bowling an awkward proposition, but Derbyshire got it right much of the time with the use of spin - or at least slow, accurate bowling - to frustrate the opposition. Chesney Hughes and Tom Knight did exceptionally well in the middle of innings, while Wes Durston bowled some intelligent spells at the start on some occasions.

The batting fired more often than not, with Guptill and Durston usually a good opening pair. For me, Hughes could have moved up and down the order, coming in against the seamers rather than spin where he had his struggles. Garry Park and Wayne Madsen had solid campaigns, the former perhaps a better option at three on some occasions for me. Ross Whiteley was a revelation at the end of innings and I've seen comments suggesting he too should have been elevated. I'm not so sure and feel his niche is going in to play shots and clear the boundary when the fielders are back, rather than when there are more close fielders in for the occasional shot in the air. Quite often promoting batsmen doesn't work. Although I take the point that if Whiteley got out he would score quickly in a brief knock, it would then need someone else to take up his mantle lower down.

Then there's the skipper. Luke Sutton generally kept wicket to a very high standard and rang the changes well. Perhaps on a couple of occasions he got it wrong and those were the things people picked up on, rather than applauding the times he got it right. I don't envy him his role in T20, when the game is moving at breakneck speed. Keeping wicket, often standing up to stop the batsman using his feet, leaves you exposed if the bowler then fires a couple wide down leg side, or a batsman gets one away off an inside edge. Similarly, keeping the field in the right places and changing it for different players is a tough job and combining the two in a pressure cooker environment is not for the faint-hearted. Then, of course, you have to go in and bat...

Sutton only scored three runs in the campaign. Then again, he only had four innings and generally came in when time was running out. Against Worcestershire, when his savvy might have made the difference, Chesney Hughes ran him out when Usain Bolt wouldn't have covered the 22 yards in the required time. Against Nottinghamshire he was run out by David Hussey (that's the unregistered one...) when we needed 68 from four overs. Against Lancashire he was caught and bowled, getting in with five overs to go on a turning track, then against Leicestershire got in with three overs left. You could hardly say that he might have played match-winning hands in the circumstances, nor hold him liable for not doing so.

I would agree that next season we might look to playing Tom Poynton in the shorter forms of the game, with our new star captain skippering the side. Mind you, I'd hope that people might be more respectful and understanding of Poynton if he only got in at such times and failed, as logically he would do more often than not with no time to get your eye in. By the same token, Sutton's merits behind the timbers are such that, freed of the captaincy, he might just contribute more with the bat anyway...

At the end of it all, only the foolhardy would suggest we failed to compete this year. With better luck from the weather and a little more savvy we could have been a win away from the quarter finals. For me, the emergence of Knight and Whiteley has been a major plus in this campaign. With the right man in to coax the best from them, these lads, together with the likes of Hughes, Redfern, Poynton and others form the nucleus of a young team  of some potential.

PS I should add that I was as puzzled as some of you at the absence of Tony Palladino, especially when Groenewald or Jones were unavailable. I came to the conclusion that a niggle he's had this year might have been the reason. He wasn't a T20 regular for Essex and it may be that his attacking length might have been more likely to be hit. We'll never know - at least not this year. I expect to see much more of him next time around though.