Derbyshire has named a 15-man squad for the four-day game at the County Ground that should start today, weather permitting. It represents the last opportunity to see cricket in Derby this summer, one in which there has been much to remember, though too great a proportion for the wrong reasons, especially in this format.
Gary Wilson returns after illness and takes his place in the following squad:
Billy Godleman
Luis Reece
Ben Slater
Wayne Madsen
Alex Hughes
Matt Critchley
Gary Wilson
Harvey Hosein
Tom Milnes
Tony Palladino
Hardus Viljoen
Harry Podmore
Will Davis
Imran Tahir
Hamidullah Qadri
I would expect the first six to be as is, with the question mark over whether Gary Wilson takes the gloves and lengthens the batting at seven. I would hope we might unleash the Viljoen/Davis partnership as a taster to a more healthy 2018, while logically we would need to see if Harry Podmore is the bowler that his career average suggests and not as his figures from Chester-le-Street showed.
That would be my thinking, anyway, with Godleman to open in his rightful place. There is always the chance that the wicket will have been prepared to turn later, offering a chance for Hamidullah Qadri to repeat his Cardiff heroics from June.
Glamorgan, like Derbyshire, suffered T20 heartbreak and they have an experienced squad traveling, namely:
Selman, Rudolph, Murphy, Ingram, Carlson, Cooke, Salter, Meschede, de Lange, Carey, Hogan, Smith
There is a last chance to see Jacques Rudolph, who retires at the end of the summer after a fine career. There's no Graham Wagg and no Aneurin Donald so two regular thorns in our side are absent. The game also offers a fast bowling sideshow, with Hardus Viljoen and Marchant de Lange both presumably wanting to show who is the fastest 'gun'.
It is a game that, weather permitting, we can win, but as always is dependent on which Derbyshire takes the field.
Not to mention how much time the weather permits.
In the light of the latter forecast over the four days, I'm going for the draw.
Any idea why Daryn Smit is out of the side? Is it just to give Harvey a few games before seasons end?
ReplyDeleteI assume so DF, and it is up to Harvey to give a good account of himself, match Smit's glovework and improve on his batting returns...
DeleteOdd squad selection for this game, with 15 named and two different bowling sides possible, for a home match where you presumably know what kind of pitch you've prepared. I'm not sure about Wilson lengthening the batting. Since the Notts game at the start of June, he's scored 42 championship runs in 6 innings and his keeping looked very rusty (not surprisingly) in the last game against Notts. While Hosein has hardly carried his seconds' form into the first team, he's scoring more runs, getting starts and occupied the crease for longer periods. I'd be disappointed to see either Slater or Critchley left out, so I suspect it does come down to Wilson or Hosein at number 7. Where we've really missed Wilson is in the slips, where, of course he can't field if he's not playing or keeping wicket.
ReplyDeleteThe other puzzle to me is Milnes' continued presence in the squad. He's been ever-present for the last few championship and T20 matches, without actually playing. I thought that the fact that he's out of contract at the end of the season, his very poor showing in the first half, and reaching the age of 26, a dangerous age for a fringe player with the age-related incentive payments ending made him a likely candidate for freeing up space for potential new recruits, but his continual presence in the squad suggests that the club see a future for him. The one thing he offers, if he can sort out his bowling and fulfil the potential that we saw so briefly for a couple of matches last year, is the genuine late middle-order all rounder, batting at 8 and providing some stability at 8 that we've been so lacking.
Rain looks like having the upper hand on the first day, but I'll be interested to see which of our bowling attacks we decide to use if there is any play.
Off topic my apologies but anyone think we might be able to or willing to get Carberry from Hampshire? He is on loan at Leicestershire. Another left handed not ideal but would be spot on for t20 instead of Godleman. First class average of 41 would surely improve upon Slater. I rate Slater by the way really want it to work out for him. Just the batting in county championship not good enough and a bit of experience might help?
ReplyDeleteIt's days like today Peakfan that will be the death of four day cricket.
ReplyDeleteI've just got back from the 3aaa's having finally got the announcement that there will be no play today, due to a wet outfield.
From a distance, the playing area looked fine, and as my friend commented, if it was a T20, we would have been playing now!!!!
I'm not for one minute suggesting that the decision was wrong, but I have a belief that year 2017 cricket is still being dictated by 1940's directives. I would not want to put any players wellbeing at risk, but I believe more can be done to get a game on. I also believe that more should be done to keep the paying public up to date on what is happening.
As a cricketing purist who has been brought up on the longer formats, I feel that over the next few years 'wham bam, thankyou mam' T20 will take over completely if the longer formats do look to change.
I didn't get as far as David, so can't express a view on the conditions when play was abandoned. What puzzles me is how the ground got so wet in the first place. There were pictures tweeted around midday on the first day which showed the covers on and no sign of standing water, but an hour later other pictures showed huge pools at the media centre end. I only live a few miles away, and I'm pretty certain it didn't rain heavily during that time, so I wondered where the water had come from. It's also odd that during the Notts match, we had virtually 24 hours of continual heavy rain which continued until mid-morning on the last day. Even so, the ground was fit to play by early afternoon. Yesterday's rain was nothing like as heavy, persistent or long-lasted, but killed off two days cricket and from Kim Barnett's comments, leave a question mark over tomorrow's. It's the third year in a row where we've lost whole days in fry weather when everyone else was playing, so it does raise a question for me about how grounds are being managed in these conditions.
ReplyDeletePathetic that no play has taken place today, hasn't rained a drop but we're still suffering from the downpour on Tuesday. I take it it will be the same Thursday as well even though the forecast is fine, makes me wonder whether Derbyshire are happy with this as it would seem defeat is impossible now. Poor show from the ground staff this.
ReplyDeleteCan't a cricket ground have covers for the whole outfield when the weather is really bad?
ReplyDeleteHow many overs lost 15 miles east?
ReplyDeleteGreat point Tim. I noticed that they nearly have a completed game. Absolute joke really
ReplyDelete*west
ReplyDeleteHaving studied the weather forecast, l prudently decided to miss out on day one and travel down Wednesday morning for some cricket. But the plans of mice and men ... l got about two hundred yards from the ground when two kind gentlemen told me that day two was abandoned for the day! I was gobsmacked especially when seeing that cricket was underway at Grace Road and Trent Bridge. I had seen there was a pitch inspection at eleven and was presuming that a slightly delayed start was probable but not another full day lost! I heartily agree with David's comments and those of NOY.
ReplyDeleteI cannot comprehend why there was no possibility of play today, maybe l could understand if the fixture had been at Queens Park and that's no disrespect to the ground staff there but surely HQ have more facilities to cope with these downpours.
I foolishly booked train travel for tomorrow in advance to take advantage of a discounted price but it really doesn't seem worthwhile travelling down again for maybe only three/four hours play with little meaningful cricket.
A very frustrating state of affairs!
Stuart, York
The issue was the bowlers runs up, they were deemed dangerous, and it would be very easy to cover the whole field, however, when the field is covered the rain sits on the covers, move those covers and the water moves too, and with the best will in the world its inevitable some, if not all of the waters runs off back onto the outfield , I understand the frustration but also understand the problem
ReplyDeleteI don't think Nottingham got the same amount of rain as Derby anyway, but Trent Bridge also has the benefit of test ground drainage so I'm not sure that the comparison with Derby is valid. However, while I appreciate the point Ash makes about the water that gathers on the covers needing to go somewhere. two questions arise for me. First, is it impossible for the blotter to run across the plastic sheets to take water off before they are moved, rather than tipping it on to the outfield and hoping you can get it up before it soaks in? Second, if you can't take it off the covers before moving them, how did every other club who had rain manage to move the covers without soaking the outfield? For that matter, how did we do it after the much heavier rain against Notts when it would have suited us very well not to have played at all?
ReplyDeleteAnyone go to the meeting yesterday? Barnett signed up for another year which is great but was anything else interesting discussed? Thanks in advance.
ReplyDeleteAnybody would think the rain in the derby area on Tuesday was a monsoon the reality is it was the first significant amount of rain for several weeks if club's cannot cover the playing area adequately then the ecb should take action against these club's i.e. fines and points reductions
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