As you were, everyone...
Nothing doing at the 3aaa County Ground today, with torrential overnight wind and rain getting under the covers and rendering one end of the wicket 'dangerous' for bowlers. The area where they plant their front foot was under a pool of water and conditions were just too dangerous for play to get underway.
Dry weather overnight and tomorrow should hopefully allow a declaration-led run chase on the final afternoon and Graeme Welch appears to be keen to set this up, as, I'm sure, is his Gloucestershire counterpart Richard Dawson.
A positive result for either side would keep them in the mix for promotion, but there is still a lot of cricket to go. A strong run through late season can change things and if we can get more of our regulars fully fit, we could be up there.
We will see if that run is going to start tomorrow, but I'd guess that Derbyshire will use a few opening overs to see the state of the wicket before being overly bold with a declaration.
Keen on a result we may be, but we're not likely to subscribe to chasing 300 on the last afternoon on a dodgy wicket.
There's only one way that could go...
We might as well declare overnight.
ReplyDeleteDepends where the rain is Tim. If it is anywhere near where the ball is pitching, we'd be close to an old fashioned 'sticky' and, 250 behind, we would be in trouble.
ReplyDeleteIf it is just where the bowlers footholds are, different story and I would agree.
Its just the foot holes, the wind ripped the sheet from the end of the cover and the water just poured over. I see from a post on another site that some people think the groundstaff should have stayed there all night !!
DeleteTheres some daft folk around mate...
DeleteAs I understand it if we declared overnight they'd make us follow on immediately, and we'd throw 8 wickets down the drain and the chance for bonus points away. Given that our over rate is currently -4, any agreement would surely see us having to bowl for at least an hour with spinners to get back to parity, and I can't really see anyway in which that is feasible and gives us a reasonable chance of knocking off any sort of total.
ReplyDeleteI agree Sam. We arent in a strong position and Gloucs are in the driving seat at this stage
ReplyDeleteI expect any declaration agreement will take account of our need to bowl for long enough to get the over-rate up, but the arithmetic also needs some takeaway bowling to be offered. At the moment, Gloucs are 252 ahead, so we can't just declare overnight, let them take 70 or 80 and chase 330+, for the reasons Peakfan mentions. If we bat on for an hour, that takes the lead down to around 200 and offers Gloucs the chance to pick up a bonus point or two. We then bowl 10 overs in half an hour (Godleman and Slater perhaps?), they take 100 and we get our over-rate back up, and chase 300 in about 70 overs. It's a complicated deal on a pitch that was helping the bowlers on the first two days, so I won't be surprised if we bat on and leave an hour of bowling at the end of the afternoon to rectify the over-rate.
ReplyDeleteNot that we should be in this position with the over-rate, yet again. It's affected our tactics in several matches, and is completely avoidable. It's a simple matter of discipline and professionalism, and however impressive Tom Taylor in particular is performing in other ways, this needs to be addressed.
Agreed not over yet...and we simply cannot continue to risk the loss of points by slow bowling. It is unprofessional. End of...
ReplyDeleteGlad to see them following my line of thinking.....
ReplyDeleteTrying to keep up with the over rate has been a problem in just about every match we have played. It hasn,t always been obvious to those not attending matches because we have often rectified the problem over the course of an innings,the snag being we have also been forced to adjust our tactical planning as a consequence,which is not good. The captain,whoever it may be, has to take responsibility and ensure the bowlers are keeping up. He can also help himself by keeping field changes to a minimum during an over. I would like to see each innings as a separate entity and slow over rates penalised there and then,rather than being carried over to the second innings.Following the controversy at Cardiff,the boot is now on the other foot and we find ourselves having to come up with a scheme to avoid losing points ourselves.
ReplyDeleteAs for the match,it,s hard to predict what may happen,though I tend to agree with notoveryet and envisage we may bat on until some time late this afternoon. Gloucestershire are in a position to take a tough stance and i,m sure they will want any declarations etc to be loaded in their favour. I,m missing what could be an interesting day.
....even if ultimately we weren't good enough. Not sure how else it could have been set up to be honest.
ReplyDelete