Derbyshire 307 (Hosein 83 not)
Leicestershire 228-8 (Cosgrove 81 not, Davis 4-60, Palladino 2-27, Parkinson 2-71)
Derbyshire lead by 79 runs
It was another encouraging day for Derbyshire today, albeit in an end of season game against a county that is hardly among the high-flyers.
Yet one can only do well against what is up against you. After Harvey Hosein ran out of partners, Derbyshire made regular inroads into the Leicestershire batting, with Will Davis again giving notice of an ability to take wickets. That he bowls the occasional bad ball is beyond dispute, but between he bowls enough really good ones to trouble and dismiss good batsmen, his pace setting him apart from most and his potential quite considerable.
Callum Parkinson confirmed his talent too and has done well in his limited appearances so far, while Tony Palladino just did what he always does - running in hard and putting the ball in the right areas with metronomic accuracy. Top marks to Billy Godleman too, making bowling changes today that often brought early dividends - a joy to any captain!
If the weather stays fair, a positive finish would appear guaranteed from here, but the first session tomorrow could well dictate which way the result goes. While the dangerous Mark Cosgrove is still there, the visitors will entertain hopes of exceeding 300 themselves.
Let's hope that we can stop them in their tracks and build a potentially winning lead tomorrow.
The umpires probably did us a favour last night taking us off early, as it's very grey and humid at the moment and probably better not to be batting first thing. I think a result is pretty inevitable, and it should be a win for us as long as we avoid the kind of second innings collapse we had here against Kent. It was another impressive spell from Davis, though all of his wickets came from poor and unnecessary shots to wide or short balls. This is, of course, part and parcel of the panic a genuinely quick bowler creates, but it would be good to see him get more wickets with straight and full deliveries. Hopefully, he'll keep one of these for Shreck, who is far too poor a batsman to waste short balls on, much as he deserves a battering for his childish behaviour towards Davis at the end of the Derbyshire innings. Note to Hosein after the praise I've been heaping on him - taking a single off the first ball of each over and exposing Davis for the rest of it wasn't the best way of getting to a hundred.
ReplyDeleteA couple of other points. This was one of the best catching displays I've seen from us this season, and amongst all of the agonising about our inability to take 20 wickets, it's not often been commented on that dropped catches mean that we're actually trying to take 25 or 30. Secondly, Godleman's captaincy was excellent, not so much for his bowling changes to my mind, but for intelligent and innovative field placings. The prime example was the positioning of Broom at backward square leg (sort of), where Sayer top edged Davis 2 balls later. Nothing more satisfying than a captain's wicket.