Leicestershire 213 (Evans 63, Mulder 39, Conners 4-62, Potts 2-32, Lakmal 2-52)
Derbyshire 36-1 (Masood 20*)
Derbyshire trail by 177 runs
It was a fine old day for Derbyshire at the Uptonsteel County Ground today, bowling the home side out for 213, then replying with 36-1 by the close.
The inclusion of Mattie McKiernan in place of Luis Reece was a pre-match surprise, though Luis limped his way through the last game and erring on the side of caution makes a lot of sense. McKiernan took a big wicket before lunch with a fine ball but may have more bowling in the second innings, as may Alex Thomson.
It was all about the seamers today. I thought that Sam Conners bowled really well after an erratic start, while Suranga Lakmal offered control without the best of luck. Two wickets in the afternoon were good reward, as they were for Nick Potts, who ontinues to make a big impression. His first was the special one of Colin Ackermann, brilliantly caught at point by the diving Anuj Dal, who was superb in the field all day. I really should have that sentence on copy and paste...
He also bowled well and is another who keeps the batsman playing. While the Leicestershire tail wagged a little, there can be little disappointment in bowling out a team who opted to bat first, just after tea.
It could have been better, Guest being less assured than some days behind the stumps, though there were some difficult wide balls to take and the pitch appeared to have variable bounce at times.
When our turn came, Godleman was out before the close and looks a little out of sorts at present. It seems more crease occupation than anything overly assertive from the skipper and I hope we see him back to his best sometime soon.
Yet the imperious Masood looked good against two international bowlers in Hendricks and Mulder, remaining to start tomorrow in the company of Guest.
If we are still batting tomorrow night, we should be in control of this game.
A great team performance yesterday. Sam Connors is looking a class act. If he continues like this, he might well be knocking on the England door in a couple of years. Nick Potts is also showing great potential.
ReplyDeleteBilly does look out of sorts. He's had a poor start to the season with the bat. I'm hoping that du Plooy will will find form today. He too has been unable to find runs, even in the three pre-season games. Batting was a big problem for us last season. We can't just rely on the brilliant Masood to put runs on the board. The rest of the top order have to contribute.
I'm hoping that we can reach 350 - 400 today, with du PLooy making a big score.
Even with a weakened bowling attack that was a great effort today, with Aitchison and Scrimshaw back we should be fine on that front. A bit concerned about several of our batsmen though, Godleman, Du Plooy and Reece need to start finding runs, hopefully this is the game for Leus to shine
ReplyDeleteMasoooooooooood!
ReplyDeleteSo who are the players keeping Masood out of the Pakistan team, they must be decent players.
ReplyDeleteMasooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood, what a player!
ReplyDelete