Durham 480-9
Derbyshire 164 and 305-6 (Reece 106, Slater 57, Madsen 48, Hughes 39)
Derbyshire trail by 11 runs.
Better today from Derbyshire, at least taking the game into the final day, although with no real expectation, after yesterday's capitulation, of avoiding defeat.
The stand out performance today was that of Luis Reece, who once again confirmed his talent and the success that he has been this summer. He will have been disappointed to have gone, soon after reaching his century, but one cannot be critical of a man who has got to that stage.
Ben Slater, Wayne Madsen and Alex Hughes all made decent scores, but each will have been frustrated at the failure to go on to a match-defining score such as that of Reece. In the case of Ben and Alex, capitalising on those good starts will be key to them becoming major, rather than bit part players for us in future years.
Meanwhile it is strange to be at this stage of the summer and see Wayne averaging mid-twenties in the four-day game, with a season-highest of 70. His stellar T20 work will redeem his summer, but the pressures of a Testimonial year, not forgetting a new baby in the house, must be a major change to his life that he will undoubtedly come back from another year.
Billy Godleman is in a bit of a trough of form at present. He had a couple of good T20 innings but then went off the boil and has failed twice here. Personally, I would prefer to see him open, where he does his best work. As captain he leads by example and I think him a far better player at the very top of the order. Hopefully he will return there for the next game, leaving either Luis Reece or Ben Slater to go first wicket down.
A better effort then, though not making up for yesterday's poor effort that will undoubtedly cost this game. Yet it suggested professional pride and a willingness to fight, which was good to see. I don't expect us to make anywhere close to the runs to make the home side panic in the final innings, but I will always appreciate and acknowledge a side that gives it their all.
As they did today.
Unbelievable selection and match management.
ReplyDeletePick three front line seamers and two spinners and decide to bowl first!
Then pick a side with a tail that starts at No.7 ( arguably No.6 with a 21 year old averaging 33) and here's what you get. At worst all the above is wholly negligent or, at best, completely scrambled thinking.
They need guidance, and quickly!
Bob
So many times we show grit on the second batting attempt when the game is already gone. Our first innings totals are a joke. Slater, I have never known a guy get so many starts. There has to be something to this guy worth sticking with and I for one hope he plays all the remaining games as I think he can develop further. His average at under 30 needs work but like I say the number of starts he gets gives me hope. Well done to Reece again. Hughes has been solid recently in 4 day. Frankly, I am starting to think we've back the wrong man in Billy. I am not sure he is the right man. Loads of examples I could give but so many muddled decisions. It's ok learning from Kim Barnett but I don't think we have shown enough signs of improvement (like we have in t20) and frankly I keep hearing the same things from him in interviews. I also think much as I like his communication style to listen to when you are not performing you need someone more motivational and in your face. Who that is I don't know. Personally I would be looking at recruiting a batsmen in the top 3 ideally right handed who can captain. I think we need fresh ideas.
ReplyDeleteBilly Godleman is no use when he gets one big score every seven or eight innings. I've never rated him and his place should be under threat, really out of form at the minute. A better second innings, but too little too late again Derbyshire.
ReplyDeleteI rate him highly as a 4 day and 50 over bat. But every player has his off spells. All of them...
ReplyDeleteGodleman should be opening - No idea why he has dropped to 3?
ReplyDeleteAlso I'm not highly in favour of bringing Podmore in at this time of the season. I can see that we are potentially lining up for next season but we have Davis and Taylor playing in the 2nd team, each of which have shown an improvement in form this season and need to be playing 1st team cricket as they both don't have a huge amount of experience behind them.
We seem to get to this point every year and seem to start planning for next season and then next season arrives and we don't improve!
Reece is showing to be an excellent signing but you just don't have any confidence in the batting line up if conditions are against us or pressure put upon us. I suspect we got the worst of the conditions on Day 2 on a cloudy overcast day but then we opted to bowl first on Day 1 so we cant have it all our own way!
One of the advantages of being a "Country Member " in the North enables me to see Derbyshire away from Derby. After a depressing day on Tuesday spent yesterday watching 2nd Xi at Harrogate. Very impressed with the control and patience of one James Kettleborough. To score 180 on a good wicket against a 2nd XI attack which opened with Ryan Sidebottom and Jack Brooks followed by Tim Bresnan and Liam Plunkett was some achievement . Worth a game before the end of the season
ReplyDeleteGJ Ripon
Having seen the second and third day at Durham, I have to say that there is so much rubbish being talked here. Our first innings wasn’t as bad as comments suggest and the second innings not as good. Nothing different happened here from what has been happening all season. This was only the 5th time we’ve gone past 300 all summer, but the batting failures have sometimes been compensated for by our improved ability to take wickets. When we don't, the batting failures look all the more stark. And so it was here. We lost this match because of poor bowling, not because of poor batting. If Durham's first innings had been limited to 225-250 as it should have been, 164 wouldn't have been such a catastrophe, and our second innings performance would have been enough for a competitive final innings. But when you allow a side to more than double the par score from 7th wicket onwards, you give yourself no chance at all. Durham have been put in by the opposition in most of the games here and bowled out for less than 200
ReplyDeleteThere was nothing wrong with the decision to bowl. Locals said that Durham have been put in to bat in every game here and been bowled out for less than 200. With heavy cloud cover and the floodlights on, there was absolutely no reason not to bowl, and the lunchtime score suggested it was the right decision. Even with the skies clearing in the afternoon, from 216-6 with a tail to come almost as long as ours, we should have been able to finish it off. Certainly, the bowling on the second morning was as bad as anything I’ve seen in the past 2 years. By contrast, Derbyshire's first innings was in poor light against bowlers who know how to exploit the conditions. For all that Durham has fallen on hard times, it has a core of experienced first division players who know how to win tough matches. If anything, our batsmen were too deferential, being dominated for long periods, even by Keaton Jennings' wobbly dobbers. The real problem, though, was not that we were 100 runs short in our first innings, but that we’d conceded 200 plus too many when we’d bowled.
The second innings was obviously more encouraging, but so it should have been. The light was good, there wasn’t much happening from the pitch, and Durham were a bowler short in their second successive day of bowling. At one point, it was even possible to imagine a scenario in which we might be able to post a competitive target, but a series of soft dismissals undermined the innings. Slater hit a loose shot over a full toss to be bowled just before lunch, Madsen played a horrible unbalanced sweep to the second ball from a part-time leg-spinner just before tea, and Reece lobbed a catch to midwicket just after completing his century. There was a lack of application in these shots, however well they had played up to that stage, particularly from Madsen who at one time we used to be able to rely on to play for the situation of the innings. After that, the innings started to grind to a standstill, and from the taking of the new ball, we made only 75-6 in 29 overs – compare that with the jet-propelled progress that Durham made against our new ball.
I think Godleman’s in a run of bad luck rather than form. He got a cracking inswinger first innings, and in the second nicked the ball on to his thigh pad before it bounced up and clipped the bail. I don’t know enough to judge how good he is in motivating and inspiring, and whether he has what it takes to be a strong leader in Derbyshire’s context. What I am clear about is that we do not want any more disruption from the kind of dramatic change in culture that we’ve had every two or three years for 20 years. There are plenty of things that need addressing – the lack of development of our quick bowlers, the generally poor performances of the new recruits, Madsen’s loss of form and with it the ripping out of the heart of our batting – but it’s absurdly too early to be calling for wholesale change.
Im with notoveryet, whereas I fully support the call for a head coach (or whatever you want to call him) to work with the CC side I do not want wholesale changes, its happened before every other year and got us nowhere. Ive said before we need to ship a 3 or 4 members if the squad out (naming no names but theres a few who aren't playing and not 'kicked on') we need a top 5 batsman and a seam bowler to look to replace Dino, whether its Podmore or not I dont know, any chance McKerr would be available? I would look to sign a seamer who could hold a bat for the 1st half of the season then try again for Tahir......thoughts anyone? I'm unsure if the batsman we need is Kettleborough but he's certainly done well in the 2nds, has anyone got a link to his stats this season ?
ReplyDelete