Despite the loss of two of their last three championship matches, few could deny Dave Houghton' assertion that we are playing some good cricket.
The frustration is that we are not yet playing good enough cricket, on a consistent basis.
The home fixture against Glamorgan, one in which the visiting side were shorn of several key players, should have been won. So too should last week's game at Durham. In both matches we had played well enough to be in the ascendancy, yet were not brave nor good enough to get across the line.
The reality is that our batting sometimes flatters to deceive, while our bowling simply doesn't have that cutting edge when it matters. Both Tony Palladino and Ravi Rampaul have done well this year, but neither are in the first flush of youth. We cannot realistically expect them to keep bowling teams out consistently, nor, for all his excellent efforts, should we really want Luis Reece to do his current amount of bowling. It has to have a detrimental effect on his batting average, which subsequently knocks on to the rest of the batting.
To progress further, and make a realistic promotion challenge, we need Logan van Beek to be the kind of bowler we hoped we had signed. One good enough, it should be said to take over 40 wickets at 14 each in New Zealand last winter. That sort of player, in a small squad, is crucial in our moving forward. I live in hope that Logan, by general consensus a lovely lad who is 100% committed, will become that player. If not, then we need to go back to the drawing board for next year.
We currently sit in fourth position in the league, but have yet to play any of the leading lights of the division. Given that our next four matches are against Glamorgan, who are second, Lancashire, Middlesex and Worcestershire, we will know, before the start of the T20, whether promotion ambitions are realistic, or just a pipe dream.
We all know, from recent seasons, that Derbyshire are capable of beating good sides, sometimes with equal alacrity as they capitulate to lesser ones. My own opinion, for what it is worth, is that we are competitive, but will win nothing until we develop, or recruit, the mentality to approach winning situations with greater confidence than a blindfolded man crossing a trapeze on a unicycle.
We have players you would back in those situations, but others who struggle. Dave Houghton will know this, but only time can realistically resolve those issues. There is a lot of talent, but much more work, both development and recruitment, to be done.
So we head down to Swansea needing a result. There may be changes, as Luis Reece would appear to be unlikely to bowl. That is a huge loss, but may just mean additional overs for Alex Hughes and certainly for Matt Critchley.
There is no news, at this stage, of the Glamorgan squad, but having beaten us without several key players, they will be confident in repeating this with South African quick bowler Marchant de Lange likely to be in the side and bowling well.
I am going for a draw here, for no other reason than a poor weather forecast that will take sizeable chunks from each day.
First innings points look to be important to maintain any promotion challenge, but based on recent form, the latter is an aspiration, rather than a realistic goal.
We will see.
What do you think?
Our top and middle batting looks very brittle. Not enough players are hitting good form at the same time. We’re very inconsistent. And I’ve wondered on more than one occasion about the psychology of the team when batting. That woeful collapse against Durham was a case in point. And there have been periods in games when the batsmen have got bogged down instead of playing shots and accelerating.
ReplyDeleteOne of the interesting things about the structure of the England innings against Bangladesh yesterday was how many ones and twos the England players took. There was barely a dot ball. Our batsmen need to do more push and run instead of simply blocking.
We rely a lot on Madsen, Ravi and Palladino, but all three are in the twilight years of their career. They have all performed well and fairly consistently this season, but with the rest of the squad it’s been very patchy.
I hope Logan van Beek comes good. If he could grab five against Glamorgan, I’m sure that would boost his confidence. And it might be worth elevating Dal up the order to see how he performs.
I haven’t seen Tom Wood play, but by all counts he should be given a spot in the first team.
The case for his inclusion, and a contract for next year at least, grows more compelling. He averages 50 in both three and one day cricket for the seconds this year.
ReplyDeleteBut to play, he would need to be on the staff. Will that be considered for T20?
An excellent summary of where we are. Although wins in those two games narrowly lost would have put us in an exalted position in the table, and I would have loved it to happen, it would probably have been unsustainable. I don't know whether the small size of the squad is down solely to lack of money, or is to some extent a deliberate choice. If the former, fair enough. If the latter, I think it was a mistaken strategy. The lack of competition and the lack of options if players lose form or are injured mean that, in a season where three clubs will be promoted, it has always been clear that the squad isn't strong or deep enough. We do have good players, but so do the other teams, and most of them have greater strength in depth. Almost all our most reliable players - Madsen, Palladino, Godleman, Reece, and (this season) Rampaul have all been recruited from elsewhere. That policy, of picking up players with talent from outside, was also the template that worked for the successful team captained by Kim Barnett all those years ago. Of course, we want to develop talented local/young players such as Hosein and Critchley, but that in itself has never been enough to achieve success for a county with such limited resources and at present we seem to be developing Tom Lace mainly for the benefit of Middlesex.
ReplyDeleteMatch drawn without a ball being bowled, that's my prediction.
ReplyDelete