Derbyshire set out
tonight looking for a win that would all but guarantee them a place
in the top four of the North group and a quarter final berth for the
first time since 2005. Durham set out to add more respectability to
their points total which has been blighted by the deduction of four
points for financial issues last season. By the end of the night the
hosts needed to look no more, winning and moving them to 15 points
and second place in the Northern Group of the T20 Blast and edging
them closer to that precious quarter final berth.
With the quarter final
qualification left in the hands of stand in captain Daryn Smit, he
would have wanted a good start and despite losing the toss in his
first game in charge, that’s exactly what he got. His bowlers and
fielders restricting Durham to 42 for 4 in the powerplay, which
included two run outs, one by Critchley in the first over,
dispatching outgoing England opener Keaton Jennings with a superb
direct hit and the second with Hardus Viljoen running out Michael
Richardson without scoring in his follow through using fancy
footwork, not his hands.
The other two wickets
fell to the excellent Wayne Madsen and overseas player Matt Henry,
Madsen really put the breaks on the Jets, with his tight nagging off
spin limiting the scoring options for the Jets batsmen. Henry saw the
back of danger man Tom Latham off the last ball of the Power play,
when he picked out Alex Hughes on the deep mid wicket boundary for a
well made 28 of 23 balls.
Smit’s spinners
continued to give him control with the ball in the middle overs,
restricting the flow of boundaries, with the Jets failing to find the
boundary for a period of five overs and at that point it looked like
Durham were going to struggle to post a really competitive total, not
helped by the loss of two further wickets with Coughlin and Burnham
both departing. This brought Poynter to the crease and this gave
Durham the impetus the innings needed, scoring a magnificent 61 not
out off 40 balls.
Durham still looked to be well short of a
competitive total, but 35 off the final two overs with Cotton and
Henry both losing their control of length, allowing the Jets to post
161 for 7 and setting the Falcons 162 for victory.
That chase got off to a
steady start with Critchley and Godleman nudging singles and finding
the boundary once anover, until Godleman was caught off what looked
to be a no ball but the third umpire saw some part of Weighell’s
boot behind the line and he had to go. The Falcons reached the end of
the powerplay with 44 runs to their name and the further loss of
Critchley.
Madsen and Reece then
set about building an innings and moving Derbyshire towards their
victory total. When Madsen fell in the 11th over they had
moved the score to 76 for 3 and looked relatively comfortable,
although not guaranteed that win. The man who took them there was
Luis Reece, who scored a beautifully crafted 66 of 49 balls, including
five 4s and two 6s and in the process became the first Derbyshire
batsman to make four scores of 50 or more in a T20 season.
It could
have been very different however had Paul Coughlin held on to a
relatively simple catch offered to him on the deep mid-wicket
boundary when he was just on 21. This was a running theme for the
Jets fielders throughout the innings, with mis-fields and dropped
catches the norm and when they did hold a catch it was off a no ball.
While
Reece quite rightly named man of the match a special mention must go
to Matt Henry, who came in and scored a quick fire 20 off 10 balls
and allowed Derbyshire to have a stuttering finish, before captain
Smit hit the winning runs with three balls and three wickets to
spare.
On the victory Smit said “I’d have taken 161 at half time,
I thought it was below par looking at the batting side and If you’d
told me at 15 overs we would’ve won with three balls to spare I’d
have taken that, we were under pressure at one stage, before Luis
Reece and Matt Henry changed the momentum of the innings.”
Derbyshire now move on
to play Leicestershire on Thursday knowing a win will guarantee them
a place in the quarter finals and, barring a set of results which
would challenge even the loftiest of maths professors, a home one to
boot. Durham however move on to Northampton on Friday certain of
finishing bottom of the group.
Huw Lloyd writes for Deep Extra Cover
It might be my pessimistic nature, but Huw's being a tad over-optimistic in saying that tonight's win all but guarantees a quarter final place. There is actually a reasonably credible scenario in which Derbyshire could win one out of their two remaining matches and not qualify. Bear with me on this:
ReplyDelete* Derbyshire lose to Leics and beat Worcs to finish on 17 points
* Leics beat Derbyshire and Notts (not too difficult to imagine bearing in mind Notts are already guaranteed a home quarter final and were pretty slapdash against Worcs on Sunday) to finish on 17 points, with Notts on 18
* Northants beat Yorkshire (who, as a happy by-product of tonight's win, are effectively eliminated already) and Durham to finish on 18 points
* The Bores beat Lancashire to finish on 17 points OR Lancashire beat the Bores and Worcs to finish on 17 points
So it's easy to see how it could finish with Notts and Northants on 18 points, and Derbyshire, Leics and either Bores or Lancs on 17 points. We're a long way ahead on net run rate, but a big defeat to Leics could change that quickly. Lose to Worcs as well, and we don't stand a chance of qualifying even with tonight's win. It's obviously still well within our grasp, but I don't think there will be any complacency within the dressing room after an imperfect display that might have been punished by a stronger side than Durham.
Although there were a lot of nerves in the crowd, I thought it was less real anxiety and more superstitious dread, and Derbyshire's chase actually felt quite controlled and measured to me. Reece paced his innings beautifully, and even with wickets falling regularly, made sure that there wasn't a single point where Durham held the initiative. There was a lot of grumbling about getting them in singles when both Henry and Reece attempting to finish it with one shot, but my criticism would be about their execution rather than their intent. Sides so often get into difficulties when they change the way they are playing in these situations that I think the "get it done quickly" approach is sensible if you have wickets in hand.
Once again, though, the "death" bowling was terrible. It was one thing for Cotton to find out the hard way that Poynter was very good at hitting low full tosses when he missed yorkers, but for Henry to try exactly the same thing and fail in the same way, defied belief. He did the same early in the innings, when Latham showed he was good at hitting short balls for four, so bowled half an over of them. Add in a couple more poor pieces of fielding (all the more startling in what was at times an electrifying fielding display at times), and it needed a lot more than his 20 in 10 balls to balance the books, welcome though it was. I've mentioned this so often here that it actually occurred to me that I might be being unfair to him, so checked his final over record for us - his last over, not necessarily the last over of the innings. In 11 matches, his last over has gone for a total of 140 runs, an average of 12.7. If you exclude the two matches where he conceded 2 and 3 runs, his final over averages 15, with no over less than 11. I won't be checking the stats, but I would be very surprised if there is a more expensive regular death bowler in the country. You assume that there must be something about him that inspires the trust that's being shown, but it's certainly not obvious to me.
Good, well researched piece notoveryet. Our frailties and shortcomings may eventually end up costing us, but I don't see any option bar our going with what we have.
DeleteWhat Henry has had confirmed..mas if he didnt already know...is that the margin of error for bowlers is tiny.
There is little between a low full toss and a yorker and it is a constant battle with the batsman moving around and using the depth of his crease and his feet.
Fingers crossed the scenarios above dont come to pass...I long ago realised that you control your own destiny in life
We have to do that.
A lot better campaign by Derbyshire this season, but we still look like we're capable of shooting ourselves in the foot at any given opportunity. We made real hard work of that last night when we should've cruised home, but stupid wickets were lost when a bit of brain power was the answer. I think we'll qualify, but that's it, nowhere near enough in this squad to actually win it.
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling that, going back to the 'superstitious' comment of notoveryet, that this fits that category Mark.
DeleteThere is the talent. We have a top four where someone usually comes off and a middle order where there are biffers. 3 internationals in the attack too, even if on occasion they have taken some stick.
The talent is there but more than any other, this format is down to someone doing something special in 10-15 balls.
A quickfire 30 or a 3 wicket over...we have that talent but it is producing it better than the opposition that counts.
Skimming through the Sky recording when I got back I was quite impressed with them. Cork, perhaps unfairly on Durham watchers, was given free reign about 'us' and even Knight & Key (a pair of plonkers for the most part) actually came out with some kind and thoughtful comments about us.
ReplyDeleteJohn from Derby: Well that nearly went terribly wrong. Far to many runs conceded by Henry and Hardus again ! Never should have got that many after the start we made. The batting looks light without Wilson also. Noticeable, Brodderick was pushed down to 8 when we needed 8s and 9s. We very nearly managed to shoot ourselves in the foot at the death when it should have been easy. They wont drop Henry regardless how many runs he leaks. He did at least show his value as a lower order biffer. The 6 he hit the ball after he was dropped was pivotal in the game as was Reece being dropped before he'd got the majority of his runs on what was an easy catch. Small margins indeed and on this occasion we got the rub. I was doubtful we could get over the line when Madsen departed but we managed to thanks to bits of luck going our way. We have 2 main problems at present. Fast bowlers costing too many runs. over 70 again in 7 overs from the big 2. Hughes and Critchley only bowled 1 over each both going at 5s. Sureley if you go for 5s you deserve another over. It seems we stuck to a bowling plan regardless of what was happening on the pitch. We need to be more flexible on the pitch instead of letting expensive bowlers keep giving runs away when good options exist just because they are supposed to be the big players. If I was picking the team Id drop Cotton and bring in Wood to lengthen the batting line up with Wilson missing. Crich and Yozza can bowl his overs with pace off which seams much more successful in this format. Ben took a good catch but generally is quite slow in the field. Wood will help to add batting depth whilst being a better fielding option. Reece could also bowl the odd over if options are required. You always feel we are the odd player light to be a top team. At the moment we are getting away with it. We would be near the bottom without Madsen. Rap him in cotton wool till tomorrow. He took a nastyy blow on the hand whilst fielding also that I noticed needed icing when he was out. Didn't appear to affect his batting though. lets hope for a solid performance tomorrow. We don't want to go into the last game needing to win to progress. That's more than my nerves can stand.
ReplyDeleteJust a couple of points on the top post. Lancashire can't reach 17 points whatever. They are currently on 11 with 2 games to go.
ReplyDeleteAlso the run rates won't change dramatically now as it is based on totals over 12/13 matches so even a massive defeat doesn't hugely effect them as it is only 1/14 of the overall total (it is complicated!)
Therefore if we got to 17 points we would be massively unlucky to miss out on the top 4
Dropping cotton would be very harsh in my opinion. Bowled his first 2 overs for 6 runs yesterday and has performed well since coming in to the side. The fact is wilson would come in for Broderick if we progress and that is our best side without thakor being available. To progress beyond the quarters one or two will have to step up a bit....
ReplyDeleteDerbyshire supporters, why not just rejoice in the fact that, with two games left to go in the group, we have put in good enough performances to be in a healthy position to qualify.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very strange position we find ourselves in, and many are waiting for one of the dreadful performances that we associate with the club to raise its ugly head and dash our dreams again. I believe this team is to good to miss out now, and am confidently looking forward to a quarter final appearance, whether it be home or away.
I for one, am just going to take my seat and enjoy the rollercoaster. It's that long since we've been in this position, I fully intend to enjoy it. It may be another god knows how many years till it happens again.
A less than convincing victory but a win nevertheless and a step nearer the quarter finals. We didn't appear to be firing on all cylinders but then in this abbreviated format that tends to be the case. As long as some of your batsmen come off you can still remain in the game and the knock from Reece made a significant contribution to the outcome. His recent form shows why some red rose fans were frustrated at his departure. His partnership with Wayne and then Matt Henry were vital in seeing us home.
ReplyDeleteThe bowling while not convincing was still good enough to restrict Durham to a total that was attainable. While the opposition have had a torrid time in this competition they still have some fine batsmen in Messrs Latham, Jennings, Burnham & Co., not to mention Poynter. The slow bowlers once again were effective and Mads contribution with bat and ball has been outstanding. I agree with earlier comment from Jasper that it would be harsh to drop Ben Cotton. His inclusion has given us more options in the field and l felt we were struggling prior to that with the 'fifth' bowler.
Still all to play for and even a home draw remains within reach.
Stuart, York
A decent enough turnout from the Derbyshire support in front of the cameras on a sunny evening.
ReplyDeleteMadsen is developing into a real curtain raiser for us with the ball.
Some nifty footwork from Hardus, too. Bravo!
We are still holding catches, and the wickets kept tumbling in the first half of their innings.
Regarding Billy's dismissal, if Sky aren't able to position cameras at square leg, then they shouldn't use the one they have installed at mid-wicket.
The umpire has to call such a delivery and go with this decision. I didn't feel as though any part of the bowler's boot was behind the line but this is merely conjecture, I appreciate.
Reece played a great knock though we benefitted from about three dropped catches. Thought their fielding was good, and we kept finding their out-field players, rather than amassing boundaries.
If we can tidy up the death bowling in the next couple, we stand a chance of not only merely progressing.
Have to admit, Henry makes me nervous when we throw him the ball late on. Is the bowling attack pre-scripted by JGW or is it flexible to on-the-field stick that dished out?
Gary, you're right about my comment on Lancs. I confused two different scenarios but Lancs could still qualify ahead of us if they beat the Bores and we lose to Worcs as well as Leics. I don't really understand the run-rate issue, but I know it can change very quickly with big enough wins or defeats. Lancs went from about 0.5 to 0.2 on the strength of their margin of victory alone. I agree it's unlikely that we won't qualify on 17 points but it is possible, and I was cautioning against premature celebration. Failing to qualify on 15 points is also possible, although I don't think anyone would say we were unlucky, and we'd only have ourselves to blame.
ReplyDelete