Derbyshire 274-5 in 48 overs (Rutherford 110, Madsen 106 not)
Gloucestershire 205-4 in 35 overs
Gloucestershire won on D/L
It is hard to know what to say tonight.
We beat Somerset handsomely, lost to Yorkshire narrowly by Duckworth/Lewis and were then given tonight's game by the same calculation. Rain interruptions left Gloucestershire needing 68 from the last four overs, something I saw as I was on my last break at work. Easy-peasy from there, thought I, well aware of how well we had bowled at the end of games this year.
What I didn't know was who had to bowl those overs. No criticism of Matt Critchley, but Wes Durston, who has taken on the captaincy, will have expected to use Ben Cotton and Shiv Thakor at the death, not, because of D/L, have to use those who had not already bowled seven overs.
You have to give credit to the home side, because they got there. Jack Taylor played a highly impressive cameo of 41 from 14 balls, but one has to say that a team should be capable of defending seventeen an over. The batsmen chanced their arm and got away with it, but we should still have been capable of holding off their charge.
Indeed we would have done so, but for something that incurs my greatest criticism. We were unprofessional at the last.
The captain will bear the brunt of the flak, because them's the breaks when you take on the role. You make a good bowling change or set a clever field, you are the bees knees. You do something wrong, you're considerably less than that. To be fair, having too many men on the leg side is a pretty basic error, but I don't hold Wes solely responsible. There were eleven players on that pitch and surely one of them should have spotted it and said something?
It all rather ruined a fine batting effort, when Hamish 'Signhimup' Rutherford and Wayne Madsen scored sublime centuries and took us to a position of strength. We could and should have won from there, but for rain and, when it mattered, people simply not thinking about what was happening.
They will be disappointed tonight, but from such adversity things are learned. We have developed a nasty habit of losing close finishes and it is frustrating to be so close and yet so far. Having said that, we are playing decent cricket and if we cut out the errors, can still qualify from this group.
On Monday night I was happy to admit that we ran a good side close and were a little unlucky in the grand scheme of things.
Tonight, not to put too fine a point on it, we threw it away.
At the end, I found the only thing I can say.
Great blog mate. I was at the match though, and even at the time I thought it odd that Durston kept Footitt and Cotton on so long at the start, and also that he kept Thakor on for so long. So they were all short of overs for later. Bear in mind as well that the Met Office website was predicting heavy rain or light rain at the ground for much of this afternoon and had been doing for a few days. A really professional outfit would surely bear all this in mind? I also don't understand why Durston didn't stand up and bowl that,last over himself. He's a great servant but he's had a bad day. I hope it's the worst he ever has!
ReplyDeleteTwo other mysteries for me today. Why the very sudden change of skipper? Is there some issue about holding on to either Madsen or Durston? Also, where is Tony Paladino? Are we already seeing signs of who will and won't be here in 2016?
I can cope with losing
ReplyDeleteThrough inexperience
Bad luck
They opposition was just better
But that...........
They are proffesionals, its their job, the only thing they have to do.
Simply no excuses, not one.
Ive followed DCCC all my life and I can honestly say this defeat is the hardest to take. Simply because the game has been lost to sloppiness and rank amatuerism
Sorry PF but so so angry tonight
John
I know from a recent chat with Wayne that he wanted to split the captaincy so no hares around parks guys!
ReplyDeleteAs for next year I have ideas about who will be around and they are all in the group. Pop is using the options and rightly so.
Only when it goes awry is that an issue but the young guys have done well
Wouldn't just blame the players. We have at least 3 coaches who surely were concentrating watching a final over thriller and should have noticed the error and got word on. Clearly there was a field change before the final ball so there would have been plenty of time to get a message on.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned the day before with the batting order changes it gives an air of an unprofessional and not though out approach and errors like this don't help how it looks from the outside.
Pity as we are looking a good team for the majority of these games