There's been a different Derbyshire on view in the past week, one that scraps as a team, rather than relying on the contribution of specific individuals. Such efforts have been successful in our better teams of yore and will undoubtedly be in the future.
Graeme Welch has, somewhat unsurprisingly, made no change to the side that won with some comfort against Leicestershire. There would have been a recall for Tim Groenewald in his mind, but his comments after the announcement of his departure suggest that youth will get its chance in the remainder of the season, so Tom Taylor keeps his place.
Our visitors tomorrow have a strong squad with plenty of international experience, headed by the new South African captain Hashim Amla. With Vikram Solanki, Jade Dernbach, Steven Davies and Chris Tremlett also in the squad, they will provide a sterner test and we will need to be at our best against them.
I think the toss will be important and it would be good to see Wayne Madsen's success in the T20 coin tossing continued tomorrow. We are undoubtedly a good enough side to take a win from this game, but the onus is on the players to show that the result last week was a turning point and not just a one-off.
There's a good four-day forecast ahead which gives every chance of a positive result.
Let's hope that we're on the right end of it.
Postscript: closing on my piece last night, a comparator. My works cricket team has three 'proper' cricket players and lots of keen beginners. So our games work, one of us opens, one scores and one umpires when we are batting. This ensures we might score runs, record an accurate total and make the correct decisions.
It's the only legitimate reason I can think of to not have your best players at the top of the order.
I rest my case...
Hope I am proved wrong but the omission of Groenewald is crass as explained in previous thread.
ReplyDeleteBtw Peakfan - wish it was TIM Tremlett!
Have to agree with the comment yesterday. Groenewald is clearly in our best team. We are paying his wages and has been one of our top couple of players this year and in previous campaigns.
ReplyDeleteGiving youth a chance is all well and good if they deserve a chance and I'm not saying Tom Taylor doesnt but surely we arent giving ourselves the best chance of promotion by doing this? If we have no chance of going up in a couple of weeks then I totally agree but it just seems early to be doing this. Obviously we dont know what went on behind the scenes but he has given us quite a few years of excellent service and seems an odd decision
LOL Paul...a senior moment mate and duly amended!
ReplyDeleteThere have been a large number of managerial decisions I have questioned but I do believe leaving Groenewald out is the right thing to do. We are going to have to get used to life without him,so we may as well start now.
ReplyDelete