Kent 238-8 (Reece 3-38, Davis 3-59)
v Derbyshire
Earlier today, in my pre-match write up, I suggested that someone needed to put their hand up as a wicket-taker for Derbyshire. Lo and behold, two men did and both Luis Reece and Will Davis took three wickets today.
There has been criticism of the bowlers so far, but we all need remember that at this stage of the summer, for batsmen and bowlers alike, there is a quest for rhythm that can at times prove elusive. As I have written on several occasions over the years, professional sportsmen can have their good and bad days, just the same as you and I.
For bowlers, that action needs grooved and things like the slope and the wind can impact on their ability to pitch the ball where they want on a given day. Bowling up a hill can be tough and you find yourself reaching for the crease, while going down you can find yourself going too fast and throttling back. It is particularly an issue for young bowlers and our two youngsters did very well today.
Reece was assisted by another blinding slip catch by Daryn Smit, who has enhanced the close catching cordon considerably, irrespective of anything else that he does. Tony Palladino bowled his normal, controlled spells without success, though that quest for rhythm thus far hasn't been realised for Shiv Thakor and Tom Milnes. Both are yet to hit their stride, but they will get there.
Tomorrow's challenge is to take the last two wickets quickly and Kent must have the best number eleven in the country in Matt Coles. Then, we need to build an innings and bat for a long time.
At 83-0 tdday, Kent were looking at 400 and we were looking down a barrel.
We fought back well and need to show similar application against a keen attack tomorrow.
It wasn't a bad day, but I suspect it should have been a great deal better, based on what I heard from the commentary and saw on the ECB website - for those who haven't found it, the website now has near real-time video of all boundaries and wickets in every game. Milnes was all over the place again, and to repeat what I said earlier today, it looks to me to be a fundamental flaw in his action rather than poor form. I don't think it's a question of rhythm for Thakor either, he's well down on pace and pulling up short in his follow through compared to his early spells against Northants last week, so suspect he's still feeling his injury. I suspect that Kent have already got 50 runs more than they should have done, and can still extend it further. With similar condition tomorrow, it'll be a real challenge to stay in the game given the quality of Kent's attack so far this year.
ReplyDeleteJust a word on the slip catching. Outstanding as Smit has been, among the other improvements has been Madsen's return to the slips and Alex Hughes as a regular third slip. I don't recall Madsen fielding there other than to spinners since he broke his finger two years ago, and one of the more depressing aspects of last year was the constant dropping of slip catches by Chesney Hughes and Broom, and the regular shuffling of the rest of the cordon. There is so much improvement so far this year, with the trio working as a team, and if this spreads confidence to the rest of the fielding and the bowlers, 20 wickets may not be so difficult to take. now looks to be consistency ssseems