Glamorgan 521-8 declared
Derbyshire 318 (Reece 131, Came 65, du Plooy 41, Van Der Gugten 3-94, Gorvin 2-46, McIlroy 2-48)
and 78-0 (Reece 53*, Came 25*)
Derbyshire trail by 125 runs
The opening berths have solid incumbents, but there are plenty of options in the middle order.
There was no real logic to the Derbyshire first innings capitulation today. To reach 165 with no wickets down, but then be bowled out for 318 was massively disappointing.
Luis Reece made an excellent century, full of the strokes that have become his trademark when in best form, while Harry Came lent dogged but crucial support. The two of them looked to have set Derbyshire up to comfortably match the first innings total of Glamorgan. Yet forty overs later they were all out.
I don't look at the visiting attack in fear. There are some good bowlers and Gorvin impressed me today by attacking the stumps and getting the ball to swing. They put the ball in the right areas and simply waited for the Derbyshire batters to make mistakes. Which they did, frequently.
It was anaemic fare. A succession of players dangling their bats out, or making rash attempts at sweeping, topped off with a farcical run out of the last man, who appeared to be dreaming when called for a single. They were not in some cases, to be perfectly honest, the innings of players who might be playing for their futures.
Reece and Came set a standard the others failed to match. Luis was back to his best, which you can always tell by his foot movement, while Harry is my kind of opener - play straight, take no risks but put away the bad ball. He doesn't get fazed by not scoring for a while and looks a proper player.
I stand by my assertion but there is very little in the pitch, which was emphasised by Reece and Came batting with minimal alarms - again - to the close. Yet the visitors could still win this game tomorrow if Derbyshire bat as poorly as they largely did today.
Truth be told, I thought their hopes of winning might have been better served by batting again and setting Derbyshire a target on the last day. The bowlers will have been tired after 105 overs in the field and I thought it asked a lot of them to go out and do it all again.
Maybe it will ultimately be successful, but I wouldn't have made that decision.
In closing tonight, congratulations to Leus du Plooy, who passed the thousand run mark for the season in the course of his innings, doing so in the second least number of innings in the club's history. Only Shan Masood, last year, has done it quicker.
Hopefully he doesn't have to add too many more to save this game tomorrow.
Yes Harry Cam should have been opening at the start of the season .
ReplyDeleteGiven our proximity to North Wales, a few years ago we were hearing about this young lad playing for Brymbo, a certain David Lloyd. "An England player for sure" was the general vibe.
ReplyDeleteIt's fair to say he hasn't reached the heights many, and possibly himself, thought. But, he is still a quality player, who may still have something to prove. There is certainly every opportunity at Derbyshire. I have an inkling he will prove to be one of MA's shrewder signings.
As for this match, I was also surprised they bowled again. They need the win though - so if we get to 150-1 there may be some pies delivered, but hard to see a result. Hats off to Mr Reece though, well deserved.
I think he is an under the radar player. Can bat in different styles, very good slip, when fit a useful bowler and a canny captain. I thought he handled his field and bowlers well. The decision to bowl again will have been made by the head of cricket, and I wouldn't be sure that the bowlers appreciated it!
ReplyDeleteGlamorgan celebrated ironically when they took our first wicket as I believe they assumed they weren't going to get many more. The turning point was when Luis (as well as he played) was caught off a sweep with the new ball due. From then on it was a bit of a horror show and a shock to see wickets falling.
ReplyDeleteWe should be able to salvage a draw from this as the pitch is still fairly benign but you never know.
Agreed Steve, he is. Just info for the blog really, the fact that he had so much potential even as a league player, was reaching us up here on the Wirral.
ReplyDeleteAll I will say in defence is that our wickets went down at the same time as England's, during a gloomy part of the day. Strangely, we never put the floodlights on. Some very poor shots. Good to see Michael Cohen on the ground today. As a side note, it was disappointing to see the ball hit the boundary rope, in front of the demolition stand, only for Root (I think) to flick the ball back a few seconds later. There may not have been a massive amount of people in the stand, but we all saw it. It left a sour taste. Kris
ReplyDeleteI think the decision must have been made off the field, as the Glamorgan openers sprinted off at the end of our first innings! Kris
ReplyDeleteWhile Came and Reece have batted well (twice), we have never looked like a team going for a win in this game. Sloppy bowling allowed Glamorgan get 520, and we've been on the back foot ever since. Our batting today, after Came and Reece went, apart from du Plooy, was shambolic.
ReplyDeleteWhen Mickey took over, he talked about playing with aggression. I haven't seen much of this, so far. Mickey talks a good game, but you need to look at teams such as Surrey, Essex, Somerset etc to see what this means in a practical sense. No criticism of Came and Reece, but they could have been more attacking to give us a chance of winning. Instead, and understandably, because they don't expect a win, they just dug in.
I'm not too confident we will avoid defeat here. The always possible batting collapse duly arrived, and we are now just batting for 'pride', which I suspect one or two are not that bothered about.
ReplyDeleteA very disappointing year, after all the pre season optimism. With only the now devalued one day cup to come, and a battle to avoid the championship wooden spoon, I have little interest in the rest of the season. Sad, but true.