Who'd be a bowler?

The words above flitted across my mind as I watched yesterday's second team game between Leicestershire and Derbyshire.

They are equally pertinent to any twenty over game, because rather like the policeman in Pirates of Penzance, a bowler's lot is not a happy one.

Back in the day when I started watching limited over cricket, which was 1969 and the start of the John Player League, bowlers could easily, by maintaining good line and length, get through their allocation with little more damage to their figures than if it was a three-day game. I clearly recall when Brian Langford of Somerset managed to bowl his eight overs without conceding a run.

Today it is crazy. Batters can score runs through 360°, off the middle or off the edge. Or as one former professional of my acquaintance called them, sides, as bats are so much thicker these days. A bowler can put down a perfectly respectable delivery and see it disappear into the middle distance for six.

So it was yesterday, as Leicestershire hosted Derbyshire in the first of two nominally second team fixtures this week (the other at the Incora County Ground tomorrow). Both sides were fairly close to first choice selections and it was magnificent entertainment, as long as you weren't one of the bowlers.

For Derbyshire, Haider Ali went off like a train and hit Wiaan Mulder, a fellow international, for three successive sixes before playing on from an attempted cover drive, to his obvious annoyance.

Yet the obvious relief of the home side quickly dissipated as Wayne Madsen and Leus du Plooy, both in imperious form, took them apart. They added 105 runs in nine overs of mayhem before the latter was dismissed, before Anuj Dal helped Madsen add 52 in just over four overs. 

There were thirteen sixes in the Derbyshire innings (note I didn't say the 'm' word...) which is a feature of the season so far. Wayne Madsen, a wonderful player but not, historically, a big hitter of sixes, has four in each of his last two innings, while du Plooy looks imperious. Even Anuj Dal, a player with many assets but not regarded as a pepperer of crowds, has been doing so this year and yesterday got off the mark with an exquisite cover driven six.

And yet, having scored 231-6 in their twenty overs, Derbyshire came close to losing, with Colin Ackerman scoring a century from just 49 balls. When he was dismissed, from the final ball of the 17th over, the home side 'only' needed 38 from the last three overs. Again, there was a time when such a target would have been written off, but today, as long as you have batters who are set, it is eminently doable. By dint of canny death bowling from Ben Aitchison and George Scrimshaw, it was too much for the home side.

Which is why Mickey Arthur signed Zaman Khan, of course. He was over-excited in his first spell against Lancashire, but came back very well in his second. It was clear that despite his youth and relative inexperience, he is very skilled in the crucial bookend periods of an innings. Fast balls, slow balls, ones that threaten the nose and toes alike, the off cutter for good measure and an action that could be hard to pick up for lesser mortals.

Watching Derbyshire in this format is fun. We might not always win and supporters need to realise that on a given day someone on the opposition may just be too good, as Wells was on Saturday and Ackermann nearly was yesterday.

On Friday night we will likely have to contend with Alex Hales when Nottinghamshire bat and Shaheen Afridi when they bowl. It won't be easy.

But for entertainment, it should take some beating.