Glamorgan 410
Derbyshire 252(Godleman 53, Thakor 41) and 37-0
Derbyshire trail by 121 runs
With a good day's weather forecast ahead, Glamorgan will fancy adding to their fine run of consecutive wins with another over us tomorrow. Once again the fragilities in our batting have shown and we will need to bat somewhat against recent form to get anything from this game.
I look at these two teams and don't see, man for man, the Welsh side as being appreciably better than us. Where they currently score is in confidence, which has, by all accounts, and on the evidence of recent displays, evaporated from our side. A swashbuckling innings from Tom Taylor got us close to avoiding the follow on, but we seem to lurch from disaster to disaster with the bat.
If there is a partnership it is fine, but it is often followed by two or three quick wickets that often undoes the hard work of the pair concerned. Individually we have some good players, but after early season success they are collectively struggling for the scores that are match-defining.
I am short of time tonight after another very long day, but will be back tomorrow with more detailed, considered thoughts. I hope that I am reporting on a spirited fightback on the final day, but I wouldn't put next month's pay cheque on it.
Oh, and for the record, I think England can win back the Ashes this summer. If we had a top quality spinner I would be even more confident, but we're not going to give the Aussies the lightning tracks they crave for Johnson and Starc.
I also think they have a few too many players at the end of their careers and if our opening bowlers are at their best, we could nick the series.
My main interest will, rightly or wrongly, continue to be Derbyshire.
If we could get back to winning ways I'd gladly lose the Test match.
It wasn,t great viewing today and tomorrow may not be either,though it will play out in my absence. It was stop start stuff thanks to the weather but our innings never got going at all. We have witnessed worse totals than this but in the context of the match it was not nearly up to scratch. On how many occasions have we said that this season?.
ReplyDeleteThe thing which causes most concern is that most batsmen got something of a start and were not dismissed early in their innings. The problem then was none produced an innings of any real significance and were eventually dismissed. Glamorgan stuck to their task and were rewarded for patience. They bowled much tighter than we apparently did and that is half the battle when it comes to taking wickets. I,m not sure that bowling first was the correct choice and subsequent events have all but proved that,though there is still the chance we could save the game. It will be small consolation and do little to lift the feeling of gloom which currently surrounds Derbyshire cricket.
I'm going to go against the general grain of comments by saying that our batters got close to par for this pitch and the critical failings were in our bowling and fielding. If we hadn't given away 40 extras, bowled so badly on the first day, and held catches on the second day, Glamorgan wouldn't have reached 300 and we would still have been in this game. Much the same was true against Surrey, when we gifted over a hundred runs on the third afternoon to leave the batters an impossible task.
ReplyDeleteThe decision to leave out White here was inexcusable, unless there is some reason that hasn't been explained. If White can't be trusted to bat at 7 or 8 (which he clearly can't be on current performances)he and Taylor can't be accommodated in the same team, and there is no case in current form for preferring Taylor to White as a bowler pure and simple. It's hardly surprising that people start to look for other reasons when such inexplicable selection decisions are made.
The one batting change I'd make would be to drop Durston. He's made very little significant contribution in 4 day cricket, and some of his dismissals have been reprehensible, as he doesn't (or perhaps no longer can) adapt his approach to the circumstances - an example was the first innings against Surrey when he was caught cutting in the air immediately after two quick wickets had gone, and turned a wobble into a collapse. This would allow the return of Slater, or let Thakor bat at 5 where he might have more opportunity to turn his 40s (3 of his last 4 innings in case it's escaped notice, which makes him probably our most consistent batter at the moment) into more significant scores.
As far as this match is concerned, we need to bat until after tea and score 300 plus to save it. It's hard to see this happening, although Rutherford, Godleman, Hughes and Madsen have all shown in recent matches the ability to bat long, but not consistently or at the same time as others. But the opportunity is there for the batters to make up for the shortcomings of the bowlers for once.