While being able to bowl first was an obvious advantage for Worcestershire, the same frailties that have earmarked our cricket for the past couple of seasons were evident today.
I didn't follow play too closely but the scoreboard doesn't lie and we remain a side that struggles to take wickets.
I just hope that Imran Tahir is fit when he gets here, because he will probably be bowling at one end until September...
There could be a last afternoon battle against defeat here, so let's hope that this summer's saving grace, our batting, can at least get something from the game.
Over to you now...
We're not going to bowl sides out twice with this poor attack. Going to be the same as any other season unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteWe are as poor as ever! We always believe the next year will be different....
ReplyDeleteI don't think we are Tim. I think our batting improved but the bowling is an issue without Viljoen and some of the young seamers don't appear to have made the progress we would have hoped for.
ReplyDeleteWe need a bowler the skipper can toss a ball to and keep it tight or make them think at the very least.
Aside from Thakor, we don't have anyone who can do that consistently. Hopefully Tahir will be that man but the seam attack is a concern without Viljoen and Davis..as always seemed likely.
Absolute capitulation as I post, 40-6. Worrying times for Derbyshire yet again, squad woefully weak and thin.
ReplyDeletePITIFUL it's a good job Leicestershire and Durham started the season with minus points or Derbyshire would be halfway to the wooden spoon already
ReplyDeleteWell that has to end all talk of a promotion push. Bottom looks more likely. Not looked like taking 20 wickets since footit went and the batting, a couple of individual good performances aside is not good enough to deliver on a consistent basis. For me now it's all about the T20. We should ensure we can put out our best in that competition, even at the expense of the championship now as already we are too far off the pack and not good enough to push on in that format.
ReplyDeleteWow! Just wow! There is simply no excuse for that. £139 for membership is looking vastly overpriced right now..
ReplyDeleteOne of the worst days I can remember, and boy have we had some. Worcester's attack is bang average and there's no way we should be capitulating against that. Garbage Derbyshire!.
ReplyDeleteI first saw Derbyshire in les Jackson s last season .. we had bowlers then , not pie throwers .never mind derby co and Derbyshire ccc til I die!
ReplyDeletePs best wishes to your wife , I too am recovering from a heart attack
I anticipated a struggle to bat out the day in my earlier comment, but never in my wildest nightmares would have imagined that I'd be on my way home just after 3pm. It was by a considerable way the worst batting performance I've seen from Derbyshire in the last couple of years. Probably only Madsen can feel that he was out to a good ball, everyone else contributing to their own dismissals. Thakor, Godleman and Hughes were all lbw playing back and shuffling across their creases to good length balls that possibly kept a bit low - they might study Smit and Taylor's good strides forward if not their playing down the wrong line to pretty straight balls. Reece (or rather Taylor on his behalf) was run out, but why on earth did he open with a runner when we have a perfectly serviceable opener in Godleman batting (inexplicably) at 5? Slater gave midwicket catching practice with a firm clip straight into his hands, and Mendis showed for a couple of overs why he might be regarded as a decent batsman, and then half a dozen balls why he can't be as he slashed and hacked before launching a catch. Leach bowled well, the bounce was a little more uneven than it was yesterday, and Worcestershire are a confident side playing great cricket, but none of that can excuse the poor application and muddled thinking that Derbyshire showed today. Coming on the back of yesterday's dispirited bowling and fielding display, there needs to be some serious thought about how Derbyshire can come back from this.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly can't be argued now that there aren't problems in the batting as well as the bowling. Apart from Wilson, Madsen and Palladino, nobody id averaging even in the 20's if you discount Reece and Godleman's joke centuries against Northants (though in fairness both had made decent half centuries before the declaration bowling started). Both Madsen and Godleman are in relatively poor runs that extend well back into last season. Thakor can't bat at 3 and be a go-to bowler (for example, today he hardly had time to get his bowling boots off before he was going out to bat). Slater's shot selection has been very poor in both innings, and I wonder if he's being affected by the way he's being shuffled in and out of the team. Whatever Smit's abilities a slip and wicket keeper, he's failing in the job he was brought to do as a batsman, while Mendis is only worth considering as a tail-ender if he's not prepared to apply himself. Reece and Hughes have played well a couple of times, but neither of them carry much authority or presence at the crease, or look particularly solid.
My depression with the last two championship performances is only compounded by the fact that Leicestershire and Glamorgan, the two counties I thought might be worse than us and had suffered back to back defeats as well, have fought back well to frustrate against Kent and Notts while were capitulating in such dismal fashion.
The last two days are surely as bad as anything last year. Disgraceful really.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure the batting is better than last year, especially when we can't call on Gary Wilson. We have limped to 281 and 275 in our home games and collapsed against Worcestershire and Kent. Only improvement I can see is Smit's keeping and the close catching. Although the catching has been pretty average in this game.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm missing something but is it only me who doesn't rate Godleman. He gets the odd big score but mostly fails dismally with the bat. A consistent five out of ten performer for me.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much pressure on the batsman because of our inability to bowl sides out, not making excuses in any way but a fit HV and Will Davis steaming in at the start of an innings would make the world of difference, we lack strength in depth because it's obvious the captain doesn't rate any if the kids that have cone through the academy
ReplyDelete