An evening of cricket coaching tonight was blessed relief from another awful day for Derbyshire. After the encouragement of yesterday, our batting showed the resilience of a jelly on a hot summer's day. Notwithstanding the odd ball that misbehaved, it was a pitiful effort.
Maybe, when we're looking at players to sign in the close season, we should look at Darren Stevens, if only because whenever he plays against us he turns into Garfield Sobers. If he doesn't score runs he takes wickets and he must wish he could carry us around from ground to ground to play against.
I can't defend a limp display such as today and I won't try. If heads went down after a late Kent rally they really shouldn't have. We should have been capable of staying well in contention in this game, when the reality is that we will probably have lost it by lunch tomorrow.
That Kent chose to enforce the follow on, even with the wicket taking increasing amounts of spin speaks volumes. They clearly didn't expect to have to bat again and nor are they likely to do so. A decent, but no more than that, attack simply tore us apart.
There have been some dark days for supporters this summer, one that has turned into an annus horribilis if there ever was one, but this was the nadir for me. I'm not convinced we will score three hundred in an innings any time soon, let alone force another win in current form. Heck, if you offered me 250 in our next match I'd snatch your hand off.
Awful. Truly awful.
I'd best leave it at that for now.
We're really starting to embarrass ourselves now. Even Moore and Madsen seem to be sinking amongst the assorted flotsam and jetsam around them.
ReplyDeleteHow we consistently manage to lose games in horrific anti-power hours is mind boggling and I'm really starting to get concerned about the long term effects of this lamentable season.
Difficult to know where to turn as other than Slater for Borrington we'd likely be swapping mid-season failures for early season ones.
Confidence must be absolute rock bottom but someone needs to stand up, get the group together, and at least slow the descent before we attempt to turn things around.
I fear that it's gone way beyond needing more nets, more fielding practice and talk of what we are planning to do at some undefined point in the future.
13 wickets falling in a day is totally unnaceptable and we need some answers from Welch and co as to what the hell is going on. I think heads have gone within this group of players and morale must be at -50. We're lurching from one nightmare straight into another and there's absolutely no sign of it ending. Sadler needs to go Peakfan as he's not improving any batsman, infact he's making them a damn sight worse. Shocking absolutely shocking Derbyshire.
ReplyDeleteShocking,embarrassing, shameful. Strong words, but not too strong to describe our performance today. Surely we can't get any worse than this!
ReplyDeleteI can't go to watch them on Friday night and, for the first time in 50 years, I am glad. They are not worth the petrol at the moment. The brave words we heard at the AGM seem very hollow now!
I am reminded of a comment by someone who was given a DCCC season ticket as a retirement gift. He compared it to receiving a complimentary ticket for a trip on the Titanic!
Lackaday!
Keith
I have no real wish to intrude on a private grief, particularly in my usual capacity as a Kent supporter. A great deal was made in both camps about the good bowling by Derby on the first day on a very dry and now difficult pitch. They say you should never judge a pitch until you have seen both sides bat on it and, with hindsight, I think it likely that the bowling performance was slightly overvalued and the batting undervalued.
ReplyDeleteMost of the pitches at Canterbury have been slow this year and have very much favoured the batsman - and they have lasted the full match without offering the bowlers too much on the last day or so. This one, however, may be different. If Kent hadn't already "given away" James Tredwell, I would have said it was prepared for Riley and Tredwell. When Ball and Joseph produced their stand for the 9th wicket yesterday morning, I became pessimistic as to Kent's chances to make early inroads. In fairness, Joseph did his best by conceding most of the extras of the Derby first innings - the view was that he was so pumped up after his runs that he could barely hit the cut strip to start with!
Re Darren Stevens - if ever any county picked up an unconsidered trifle, it was Kent with Darren Stevens - and even though he wasn't born within the county boundaries,he's loved every bit as much as Frank Woolley was. If it is any consolation, it isn't just Derbyshire he saves his best for - there's barely a county that hasn't suffered from his no account dibbly dobbly bowling. And as for his batting, just ask Lancashire and Sussex after what he did to them last year!
A word of encouragement though. Good players like Madsden, Moore and the injured batsmen haven't suddenly become bad players any more than Sam Northeast has and he's spending his second match in the stiffs and has 2 hundreds and a 97 in his three innings to date. Cricket is cyclical in all things and form will return. After the mauling Kent got at the SWALEC, nobody was getting another contract after the end of the season!
2014 is a very funny season in Division II - anyone can beat anyone else and there ain't much difference between top and bottom. Take Ajmal away from Worcester and the playing field is level.
Chin up!
It,s not often I,m struggling for words but on this occasion they almost fail me. Others have described it just as well as I can and I can only nod in agreement.
ReplyDeleteIt was a horror story,the only consolation I wasn,t there to witness it. Quite where we go from here,heaven only knows. I,m old enough to remember the late sixties and early seventies and even those teams that finished bottom and second bottom over a three year period was nowhere near as bad as this one.
I knew all along the Leicestershire game would prove to be a one off. This team has no bottle,no spirit,no fight and very little ability. Time to begin the clearout and start over.