On the wrong end of another vital toss on a warm morning at Derby. Having said that we stuck to the task well in the morning session. All the seamers bowled manfully in hot conditions. Special mention must go to Robert Hemmings whose opening spell of seven overs for nine runs was commendable. Also interesting to see him open rather than come on first change. Dino was back to his miserly best while snapping up the wicket of Horton, caught behind by Daryn Smit who kept the gloves despite the return of Gary Wilson.
We need a similar commitment after lunch. The only downside, as ever, is where is the next wicket coming from? That is, of course, the perennial problem!
A couple of boundaries off Palladino following similar treatment to Taylor doesn't augur well. Could be a long afternoon.
But then Dearden flashes at a delivery from Taylor and is well caught by Alex Hughes in the gully. Just need to get Cosgrove early! Oh dear, Cosgrove dropped on eight off Tom Taylor. Hope that doesn't prove expensive.
Interesting test for Rob Hemmings as he returns to the attack. Cosgrove got hold of him and probably right to remove him from the front line.
Ackermann and Cosgrove beginning to look threatening. Oh for another wicket!
Leicestershire pass two hundred with only two down, it's looking ominous. Tea can't come too soon!
Tea interval and time to regroup. The attack is under the cosh and not sure where next wicket is coming from. We just don't have a bowler in the ranks who can undermine the opposition.
What we need is a sporting declaration!!
Mendis and Madsen open the bowling after tea and Ackermann reaches his ton as the torment continues.
Two hundred and fifty up and no sign of a breakthrough.
Hang on a minute, we have another wicket as Mendis has Ackermann caught by Gary Wilson at slip.
Tom Taylor takes new ball as Leicestershire move on untroubled towards three hundred.
Last ten and we looking tired and a little ragged as opposition move on to three hundred and fifty. No let up and heads dropping!
Four hundred up and there is no let up in the pain. Another disappointing day for Derbyshire and their supporters. Not sure where we go from here?
Interesting to see Graeme Welch in the Leicestershire camp. He must have mixed feelings watching the sad demise of his old side.
Stuart, York
Not quite sure where we look to for hope if Leics are going to give us a tonking, its going to be (another) painful summer, lets rip up this 'coaching' set up and start again.........
ReplyDeleteLet's be positive if Leicestershire can score 400 Derbyshire can score 500 if Leicestershire score 500 Derbyshire can score 600 on the other hand Derbyshire might just give up and throw the towel in by Saturday
ReplyDeleteThink you're dressing it up a bit there Stuart, making out we're not as bad as we really are. There's absolutely no hope for this weak Derbyshire side, very little quality in all departments and it's getting shown up now. Watch McKay and co get into our batsmen today and get us following on in the process. I remember Peakfan saying Leicestershire were a very poor county last season but they've got far better players than us. Cosgrove, Eckersley, Ackerman, McKay are far better than anything we've got. If we were allowed to drop down into the Minor Counties we sure would be deserving of it, after having dismal campaigns after dismal campaigns. Time for everyone connected with Derbyshire to start fighting because it's very feeble stuff at present.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we all need to start fighting however when the 'Director of cricket' sits in front of you and says that the club were prepared to rip up Harvey H's contract is obvious that they dont want to fight, thats just giving up without a fight
ReplyDeleteAzz...
DeleteIt speaks volumes if the Director of cricket speaks openly and publicly about a player and his contract.
I know who's contract(s) need ripping up and it's not Harvey's. We the supporters need to ask what we want from this club.
Let's see how we bat. Yes, because of the amount of runs they will put on the board, we will be under pressure. It is time to show some guts !!!
ReplyDeleteWe are not going to win this game, they will put 500 or even 600 on the board.
This may be tempered by the forecast of heavy showers tomorrow afternoon.
I have said it before, and will reiterate, let's look to not lose this game. Don't play at balls we don't have to, in other words, let's be smart.
At the end of this game I don't want to hear Billy saying 'we lost because we are always looking to play positively'. I want to hear him saying 'we played the game as the circumstances dictated'.
What has Kim Barnett said about Harvey's contract? I missed that and don't understand. Thanks in advance for clarifying.
ReplyDeleteMark, you are right, l was dressing it up somewhat. By mid afternoon l was becoming disillusioned with the cricket. The optimism l had pre-season has gone in the space of a couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteI am too far away from the action to comprehend what is going on behind the scenes but it's blatantly obvious that the balance of the squad is out of kilter. Leg spinners can be match winners but the platform has to be set up for them. Mendis and Imran Tahir shouldn't be responsible for removing the openers. We've struggled to replace Mark Footitt and his wicket taking capabilities. Viljoen may be the answer but it's too early to say and his absence along with that of Will Davis just underlines lack of depth in the squad. Messrs Cotton, Taylor & Milnes don't appear to be capable of bowling 'dot' balls and thus creating pressure. And very sad to hear, courtesy of , Notoveryet' that Milnes didn't even bowl himself in the second eleven. What has gone wrong there? Along with young Cork we appear to have a handful of pace bowlers whose development seems to have stalled. Davis is the only exception.
As Peakfan has often said, oh for an Eddie Barlow to mentor and lead this relatively young team.
I can't make the rest of the Leicestershire game because of other commitments but equally wouldn't want to watch good men like Mads, Dino and t' others chasing leather in vain!
Desperately sad to see the present state of play. I think we may be heading for another infamous winter of discontent if the revolution doesn't come sooner!
Stuart, York
Mark N - KB said at the members forum last week that after we signed Smit and the players had seen him keep they told KB that he was the best WK at the club, this wasn't the plan. The plan was to have GW mentor Harvey, and Harvey to get game time when Gary was away, he said we had GW at 30, HH at 20 and a 13 year old coming through the academy. When the senior players said Smit would play he was willing to rip up Harveys contract, if we start doing that to our promising players we may as well start playing Norfolk and Suffolk IMO. IF and it is a big if Harvey leaves I for one will be banging on the doors demanding answers. We have Davis, Harvey, Ben Slater and I know he didnt come through our academy but Shiv Thakor is 23, we should be tying these guys up long term and building our team around them.
ReplyDeleteSilly me for thinking that you should pick the best players you have available. For me if Smit is the best currently,then we should play him. In one breath we have people castigating the club for not having enough capable senior players,and in the next breath,saying that we should be playing another youngster instead.
ReplyDeleteWe have unfortunately lost our 2 strike bowlers for another month.
Of the games played we have either lost out on uncontested tosses (what a stupid stupid rule),and had the rough end of the stick as far as conditions have gone.
That doesn't mean we haven't underperformed at times,because we have,namely the last home game against Worcester,but apart from that game,the batting unit has done reasonably well.
Yes the squad is a little unbalanced,but we are Derbyshire,not middlesex,yorks,lancs Notts,surrey etc ,so we have a finate budget and are unable to maintain a potential 18-20 man first team squad,all of whom being capable to step into the first team.We will always have to survive by employing other counties cast offs,supplemented with the occasional home grown talent,along with the luck of employing overseas players that we can afford that turn in better performances than much better paid peers.
I also find it a little upsetting that people sem to get more pleasure from attacking derbyshire after a poor day or game,then making a comment after a decent fight back like this afternoon.
Ok,we may still come out on the wrong side in this game,but we are going to get the worst of the conditions again tomorrow,with some heavy showers forecast.
As for HH. A great talent,i agree,but i think we are all being deluded if we think we would stand a better chance of him staying ad infinitum by virtue of him being in the team now.If he continues to improve ,then he will move to one of the big counties at the day of their choosing. Till then,we should pick the best wkt keeper batsman we can,and while there may be a case for having 2 of the 3 of them in the team at the same time,we can't have all 3.
We are struggling with injuries and front line seamers who are struggling to take wkts and build pressure,but i don't see any currently outside the first team who are putting up their hands for inclusion