Glamorgan 410-9 declared
Derbyshire 252 and 281-3 (Rutherford 108, Madsen 79 not)
Match drawn
In the end, showing greater resilience than has been evident of late Derbyshire saved this game with relative ease. The quick loss of Billy Godleman and Chesney Hughes exposed the possibility of a loss, but Hamish Rutherford and Wayne Madsen got together to bat until after the tea interval to secure an honourable draw.
For both, they were welcome runs. The broken finger has disrupted the flow of the skipper's season and several weeks out takes some time from which to recover. He passed six thousand championship runs en route to his score and his return to form is both welcome and expected. Madsen is, quite simply, a batsman of the highest class. Even below par he is averaging just under forty, something that most batsmen would settle for in their prime.
As for Rutherford, it was proof that he can play the disciplined innings that was once the preserve of Chris Rogers or, to use a man from his own country, John Wright. He has got starts in almost all of his innings and his greater exposure to English tracks will only help him in this and aid his continued development.
After I watched him against Surrey, I suggested he would be a fine signing for next summer. Nothing I have seen since has changed my mind, as he has proven he can play the roles of anchor and dasher quite nicely. Averaging just north of fifty at this stage, he has let no one down and reinforced my view that New Zealanders rarely fail to be good value in the overseas stakes.
I hope we can build on this and gain confidence from it. As I wrote last night, there is individual talent in this side, but we need collective confidence that will come from a big score or two.
I hope it is the catalyst for improved form and confidence.
Unfortunately after another poor return Chesney Hughes' position must come under scrutiny. I felt he was fortunate to retain his place above Ben Slater and but for a real dearth of other options would probably already have been moved aside. His 2nd innings lbw looked a touch high personally but his wooden movements do him few favours.
ReplyDeleteWe can take some crumbs of comfort from saving the match but Rutherford and Madsen,s second innings apart there is not too much to look back on with satisfaction. Having fielded first and then been in the embarrassing position of having to follow on can hardly be described as a stroke of tactical genius and several players emerged from the match with a minus against their name.
ReplyDeleteWe are now 7th in the table and a win for Kent from their match in hand will see us rubbing shoulders with Leicestershire,which was not part of anyone,s pre season planning. I agree the only way is up but it will take more than one back to the wall innings to convince the majority we are genuinely heading in that direction. We have six matches in which to prove it.
I don,t agree with Tim,s point regarding Chesney Hughes. Up to the last couple of games he has generally speaking held his place on merit and has been far from our weakest batsman. He can be frustratingly inconsistent at times but can also produce innings of quality and has the ability to produce telling scores. Rutherford and Madsen have this ability but we have few others who can make this claim. He has more runs to his name than any of those who have occupied the middle order positions and it,s not beyond the bounds of possibility he could end the season as our leading run scorer.
would agree peakfan - i went today (only 1 of four i could make and picked best in weather terms) - the pitch didnt look like a day 4 one and rutherford batted very well as did wayne and wes at the end - i think perhaps slater in for chesney and we at least have some battlers in the top 5. Chesterfield is a glorious place to watch cricket - looking forward to sunday although i fear a pasting
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