Nottinghamshire 229 and 349 (Taylor
Derbyshire 363 and 190-5 (Madsen 61, Wilson 31 not)
Match drawn
The wait for a first championship win since 2015 goes on, but if Derbyshire can reproduce this level of commitment for the remainder of the four-day campaign it will not be long coming.
As last night's post said, the forecast virtually ruled out any prospect of a win, but we came very close and to use the words of erstwhile heavyweight boxer Tony Galento, had the weather stayed out of it we would have 'moidered da bums'.
This was, beyond doubt, a performance that made you proud to be a Derbyshire fan. Logic suggests we should come nowhere near beating the likes of Nottinghamshire, a side of considerable international experience, even in the absence of some internationals. Then again, logic should have seen us doing better in other games this summer, ones that we ended up losing.
The real Derbyshire is probably somewhere in between, but there are plenty of positives to take from this game, one in which every player made a contribution. While there were a couple of ungainly heaves towards the end, the run chase was conducted with a degree of elan and I have no doubt that Gary Wilson, Jeevan Mendis and Daryn Smit would have steered us to the win, but for the rain and bad light.
A mention in passing for Tom Taylor, whose fine spell today was the culmination of a match in which his rhythm was right and his bowling was coming back to that of the bowler who was selected for England training not too long ago.
With Conor McKerr, he looked to form a decent opening pairing, one better than their respective novitiate status warrants.
It was a pleasure to watch it through the Nottinghamshire live stream and, if we haven't quite got across the line to claim bragging rights, even the most ardent of home fans would struggle to suggest anything other than they got away with it today.
A great effort from our boys.
Now let's keep the bandwagon rolling.
I agree with your comment Peakfan, there are plenty of positives to take from this game.
ReplyDeleteI would not suggest for one minute that we are on our way to the championship, but I believe that the players, over the last four days have put a marker down as to how good they could be. The trick now is to continue the progress they have made, achieve a level of consistency, and i'm sure that elusive win will come our way.
I think Wilson is a cracking signing, and that Smit will get better and better, the more settled he becomes. Even the loan signing has started off very impressively
Let's all hope that there are good times just around the corner. I for one am feeling a lot more positive.
I once had Phil Russell attempt to change my action, the first ball hit the side of the net halfway down, obviously Tom Taylor is doing a better job than I did. Fair play to the lad, h3 must be working hard.
ReplyDeleteHow very cruel.
ReplyDeleteAn outstanding team performance over 4 days,surely deserved a victory at the end.
Many many positives.
20 wkts taken by the bowlers
Batting unit functioned well in both innings.
With hindsight it was a great pity that they lost 5 overs for bad light just before the rains came.
We all knew the rains would come at some point this afternoon.
If we knew ,then surely the umpires also knew,so i really don't know why they couldn't have delayed taking the players off at least until another wicket had fallen.
As i understand it,bad light is no longer offered to the batsmen,and instead it is solely down to the umpires. This rule change apparently being made as batsmen were prone to wanting to go off at the slightest deterioration in the light.
This was obviously not the situation here,so i don't see why the umpires couldn't have left them out a bit longer. If they had,we would be celebrating a fantastic victory right now.
At least the team should now realise they can compete with any side in this division.
A great performance and game of cricket over the last four days, we were consistently on top throughout the game. Notts tried many times in spells to take the fight to us but we always came back strongly and never allowed them back into it. As you say it was wonderful to watch Tom Taylor get better and better as he bowled more overs and we all hope that he can get back to where he was a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe end was frustrating but such is cricket and the weather has saved us in the past and will no doubt do so again in the future. It will be interesting to see in the forthcoming floodlit county championship matches if they go off for bad light. If they do not as a result of playing with the pink ball it begs the question, why we do not develop such a ball for all first class cricket? As nearly all county grounds now have floodlights it would potentially consign bad light to history.
Do we think we might be able to keep this McKerr lad for the rest of the season and who knows even sign him up long term?
ReplyDeleteIf he likes us and we like him there may be a season long loan possibility for next year I guess.
ReplyDeleteHe is some way down an impressive pecking order for Surrey and bith he and they should see a season in division 2 as better than second team games here and there.
Mind you if Viljoen and Davis are fit and Taylor and Cotton progress there will be competition!
This was one of the most enjoyable matches I've been to in recent years, even taking me to Trent Bridge on a horrid last day as soon as there was a possibility of play, with the constant fluctuations and the sense that the balance could shift at any minute. I don’t think we can complain that we were robbed by the umpires. Apart from the fact that the rules give them no discretion about bad light after they’ve taken the initial reading that sets the benchmark for the rest of match, Derbyshire wasted a lot of time in the field, as they always do. It was always likely that time would become an issue, with the weather forecast for the last day, and it’s arguable that we wouldn’t have needed three more overs on the last day to win if we’d bowled three more on the third day. What did irritate me though was starting at 1.45, having a 10 minute break between innings at about 2.15, and then coming off for tea at 3.25.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s a bit strong to say that we were on top all 4 days. Although we were still just in front at the end of the third day, I think it was definitely Notts’ day. I don’t think we got the balance right between attack and defence on a day when taking wickets needed to be the first priority, with sweepers on both sides almost from the start, and rarely more than two slips. The turning point in the game for me was when Mullaney edged wide of second slip off Taylor early on the third morning, straight through where third slip would have been. You can understand the caution with inexperienced bowlers and a short boundary on one side, but I thought this was a time to attack for a few overs, and a wicket then would have put us right back on top. I suspect that Notts may not be as dominant for the rest of the season as they have been until now, as Broad and Ball won’t be available much, and I understand there is a question mark about Pattinson returning. Without them, Notts don’t look anything special.
Not that that it takes away from a very encouraging Derbyshire performance. The bowling had some teeth for a change, and while I thought Taylor was the more impressive overall, Mckerr’s bustle and aggression gave us some teeth. Godleman’s century was superb, as he played to his strengths and wasn’t chasing the ball as much. Madsen still looks well short of his best, and looked a bit insecure in both innings, but still made important contributions. His second innings dismissal looked ugly, but I think he might have had an injury. He’d been flexing his right thigh for a couple of overs and had turned down a couple of singles, so he might have gone looking for runs, and from the highlights seems to take a checked step which means he didn’t get close enough to the ball. Apart from that the batting was a bit of a curate’s egg, with players getting a start and then getting out, but at least there was a succession of partnerships. Hughes though looks badly out of touch, and his nervy, jumpy innings yesterday created pressure for the batsman at the other end. With Smit still not making much in the way of runs, Thakor prone to getting out to unnecessary shots, Reece still to convince, and Mendis (hmm), I don’t share others confidence about the batting, but it got the job done here.
Could not agree more about Hughes, just looking at his stats in the CC and hes hardly bowled a ball and hasn't set the world alight with the bat, I believe John Wright joins us this week, time for Hughes to take a break and get working with Wright ready for the T20, thoughts?
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I question whether he's in enough form to get into the T20 side. His innings yesterday was pretty much in the same context as a limited over game, and it was awful to watch. He wasn't able to work singles, played wild shots that either went straight to fielders, and deprived Madsen and Wilson of the strike when they were going at a run a ball. It looked to me as if just before the bad light break, Wilson had started to farm the strike. Some of his catches on the boundary were brilliantly judged, and his character and personality is clearly valued, but this can't be enough to keep him in the team if he's not contributing runs.
ReplyDelete