He did sterling work last year, as virtually the entire top, seven had prolific seasons and appeared to respond to his work with them. They were aided, of course, by some unusually good early season batting wickets, as well as by the prolific output of Shan Masood. It is always easier to bat when someone appears to be using a barn door at the other end and keeping the score ticking over.
The expectations have been set and it will be interesting to see how that line up goes without the Pakistan talisman. It is where Haider Ali can make an impact, his aggressive style, hopefully tempered a little, putting the bowlers on the back foot and enabling Derbyshire to score heavily and with sufficient speed to force winning positions.
It has been a winter of pretty much constant encouragement, on and off the field. The time is fast approaching to see whether supporter enthusiasm is justified.
Pre-season friendlies have been announced against Nottinghamshire and Lancashire, the former on 23/24, the latter on 28/29 March. Both are at the Incora County Ground and will be live streamed.
One assumes that each game will see either side bat and bowl for a day each and will give early opportunity to see the new players, as well as how longer term favourites are shaping up.
Where I am today it is minus six, a true indicator that cricket will soon be with us...
It's scary isn't it? I'm almost daring to believe.
ReplyDeleteThen I remember the optimism I had at the start of Dean Jones' second season, and the bubble bursts.
Lets go for cautiously optimistic
Comparing last season with Dean Jones first season is slightly rediculous in 1996 Derbyshire finished second in the CC but for an overcautious declaration against Somerset Derbyshire could have been champions
DeleteYou have picked him up incorrectly, Anon (please use a name). Carl is referring to the sense of anticipation before Jones arrived for his second season after the excitement of his first.
ReplyDeleteDerbyshire showed considerable signs of improvement last year that justifies supporters excitement ahead of the second year under Mickey Arthur.
Hopefully this season goes much better than the second one under Deano, which was a major disappointment.
That's great news about Ian Bell. As you say, Steve, when you look at our individual batting performances last season (was it 17 centuries in the CC?), you see a huge improvement on the season before.
ReplyDeleteThe squad has depth and variety. We have three full internationals (four if you include Madsen's Italy call up) and two England Lions players. And we have a bunch of emerging young players. Dal, Connors, and Guest really came of age last season. I hope others, such as Came and Aitchison, can do the same this season. Mickey has plenty of options, so it will be interesting to see who will begin the season as an automatic choice. My eleven for the CC would be as follows. With this line up, we can bat down to nine.
Reece
Ali
Guest
Madsen
du Plooy
Lamb
Dal
Thomson or McKiernan
Chappell or Aitchison
Lakmal
Connors