Ali, Reece and du Plooy all recorded sparkling half centuries, while both Madsen and Guest played lively cameos. Teams don't tend to lose too many matches when they post 200 and Derbyshire won in a canter. The Nottinghamshire side wasn't as strong, but Patel and Carter are T20 regulars for them, Harrison flitting around the side and Pettman is a good bowler. So the performance was good and the innings by Ali, in particular, showed how destructive he can be. If he can lead off in that style when the serious stuff starts, our chances of success are considerably heightened. Seventy off the Powerplay is a terrific base to work from and he and Reece looked a good pairing today.
The bowling? Aitchison was steady, Chappell very good and Watt his usual tricky self, from 22 yards or 24. Scrimshaw looked very quick and he and Zaman Khan should be a potent combo on the right wickets.
The second game, with a more conventional second eleven, showed limitations. Lakmal bowled well and will logically take the place of Aitchison on Saturday, but the latter bowled better today than Conners, whose tendency to under or over pitch a couple of times an over is costly in this format.
Dal played a nice innings, but Wood failed twice, Thomson and McKiernan once and the batting was a mess. Even Matt Lamb gave it away early. When you don't use 25% of your allotted overs you will always struggle. McKiernan may get the nod this weekend if we go with two spinners, but has bowled better than here.
I thought reserve wicket- keeper Vikai Kelly did well and dual passport Aussie Callum Stow, a left arm Chinaman bowler who is playing with Alvaston and Boulton this summer, was tidy enough.
But batters are in form and the bowlers earlier did a good, professional job. Confidence will be high ahead of the Lancashire game on Saturday, but the standard of opposition will be cranked up a notch for that one.
Hopefully our performance does the same.
I have to disagree with you Peakfan about the second game today. I thought the performance was very poor, for a team with so many contracted players to lose so easily to a very weak Notts team (several young trialists and regular second team players in the 2nd game) really did underline the points that you'd made on Monday about these players having reached the plateau of their talents. There was also so little fight there, we were back to the Mal Loye days...we'd made so much progress last year under Smit. Lakmal might have done ok for 3 overs, but his last over finished off any hope we had. The batting line up all crumbled (except Nuj) against bowlers who won't even play Notts 1st team games this season, so heaven help them in the Blast and going forward this season. I disagree about the keeper too personally, he doesn't pressure the batters at all by standing up and his shot to get out was a shocker.
ReplyDeleteThe first game was obviously better, and the chance for the top order to open their shoulders and get quick runs was very welcome, and I agree that the bowling looked good against this opposition. It is our strength in depth though that worries me, as those who played the second game didn't look anywhere near the races yet and we are half way through May. (John.)
I think most of us, if asked to pick our starting XI for Saturday would have gone for a team not too dissimilar from that which played in the first match today and, on the whole, they looked very good. Not the strongest opposition to judge against, but it looked like a fairly balanced side and it was pleasing to see Haider Ali go out with good intent and look to dominate from the start.
ReplyDeleteOnly really Anuj Dal from the second match looked like he was pushing for a place in the starting line-up and it was good to see him back. I guess Suranga Lakmal might be in contention until Zaman Khan arrives and he certainly seems to be bowling better now and getting into a rhythm. Whether he can stay injury-free is another matter.
I’m not sure that we will repeat last year’s T20 campaign (nor do I want to repeat the Taunton match!) but I hope that we compete strongly and still have plenty to play for deep into the competition.
Sarah
Good comments, Sarah. Ali has the X factor if he hits form and can really get it away in the power play. We need one of the top three to bat for most of the innings and if they manage that we will do ok
DeleteSuranga has bowled well in the last two games and run in hard. I still don't expect him to play much T20, but our opening games are against Lancashire and Nottinghamshire. If we win one of those I would deem it a good start.