Worcestershire 181 (target 231)
Derbyshire won by 49 runs on D/L
A nice closing win for Derbyshire today, granted in a match that meant little other than for pride and bragging rights. Yet win it we did and in some style, thanks largely to an all-round display of great promise by Shiv Thakor (pictured).
It's been a funny old year for the youngster. He arrived with the reputation of being a batsman of talent who could bowl a bit, but has displayed his talent with the willow only fleetingly. He looks so composed and comfortable at the crease that it comes as a surprise when he is dismissed, which has been too early, too often this summer.
Yet his bowling has come on a huge amount. He is one of our most reliable one-day bowlers and at 21 is a long way from the finished product, yet produced another economical - and penetrative - display today. 68 runs and 3-37 made him a shoo-in for man of the match, but Scott Elstone did well with his 52 and Matt Critchley hit freely towards the end to set a competitive, if not overly scary total.
We needed discipline and economy and got both. Only four extras in the innings was good to see, with Alex Hughes bowling an equally frugal spell and removing the dangerous Alex Gidman. Neither he nor his brother Will have enjoyed the best of summers after leaving Gloucestershire and both have spent too much time in second team cricket at their stage of career. Another case of the grass not being greener, perhaps...
Four wins and four losses pretty much sums up our summer. We have shown we can beat good sides, when the commitment and focus is right, but equally slip to alarmingly poor defeats when there is a lessening of intensity. The very best sides can get away with one or two players not being quite 'there' at times, but we are some way from that and need eleven pulling together most of the time.
Enough people did their stuff today to beat a decent first division side, just as we have beaten Yorkshire, Lancashire, Somerset and Nottinghamshire this summer. It shows that the talent and potential is there, but defeats against considerably weaker sides suggests that at times we 'switch off'.
Things to work on, as there always is with young players of course.
Finally tonight, warm congratulations go to Derbyshire under-17s, who made the final of the ECB Royal London one-day trophy, beating Nottinghamshire at Repton School. They sadly lost to Warwickshire in the semi-final of the two-day competition, but can be very proud of their efforts.
Excellent match reports can be seen on the Derbyshire Cricket Board website.
Well done lads - and good luck in the final on Sunday!
That's one that I will be following closely...
I was no more surprised we won this match than when we lost on Monday. As you comment,it,s been that kind of summer with every conceivable result showing it,s hand and little in the way of consistency to look back on. I,m pleased we ended with a win but it,s hard to draw many conclusions when neither team had anything to play for. Thakor still has much work to do to convince the majority he is a middle order batsman. He,s bowled well enough in white ball cricket and this has kept him in the team,but he will need to do much better next season. The only thing remaining now is to try and win a couple of the remaining Championship matches and see if we can at least finish somewhere in mid table.
ReplyDeleteMuch improved performance, but why wouldn't it be with nothing resting on the game and against a team significantly weaker than its full strength that had already lost most of its games in this competition? It heightened the sense of frustration, however, that without the Gloucs debacle, we would have finished third in the group and avoided the probable away match against Notts.
ReplyDeleteIt was good, however, to see a sign of what we can expect from Thakor. I made the point a couple of weeks ago that I thought he should be given a run at 4 or 5 to see if the extra responsibility would curb his more adventurous instincts, and this innings may have proved the point. The disappointing side was that the innings failed to kick on from 40 overs with Hughes and Poynton going cheaply and echoed some of the failures in the T20. This could have been punished by a stronger opposition.
Interesting to see Footitt rejecting an offer of a new contract and doubtless be on his way at the end of the season (clearly the message from his time with the England team was get to a Division 1 team). With the loss of Groenewald and White along with Palladino seemingly out of favour in the one day game at least it could lead us with a massively inexperienced attack next year to look forward to. As much as I would like to have faith in our youth coming up through the ranks it doesn't fill me with confidence seeming all the experienced players jettisoned or wanting to move on.
ReplyDeleteAlso noted a former Derbyshire player/championship winning coach re-tweeting messages about people wanting him to come back to Derbyshire...
This competition is best summed up by our bowling moving forwards, but the batting going backwards a bit further. Thakor and Hughes have been the pick of the bowlers, Cotton has by and large done well, Critchley showed signs of improvement and Footitt didn't let anyone down. A lot of people suggested Palladino should have played but I'm not sure who he would have replaced?
ReplyDeleteMadsen, Durston and Rutherford performed very well with the bat, Godleman was a more than passable opener, but runs from anywhere else were few and far between. Chesney's form in what should be his best format was a major concern, Dilshan is clearly out of form, and realistically we need more runs from Thakor and Hughes, although neither look out of their depth at the crease. Elstone's fielding is worth its weight in gold, and I think he's just about done enough to warrant another year. Sadly when he replaced Chesney he usually saved more runs in the field than Ches ever scored, and anything off the bat was a bonus. If Critchley can develop his batting that will help, but I do worry about the lack of runs from the keeper, who is now a senior player.
Overall I think 7th was a harsh reflection of this competition, and with a bit more tactical awareness we could probably have got a home quarter final. We have to hope mistakes are learnt from, but also the players kick on from this year and don't get 'found out' as so many players sadly do after a year or two.