I felt it was a tall order and a very cautious declaration by the home side and said so on Twitter. They were obviously wary of the powerful Derbyshire middle order and it nearly managed to secure a remarkable win. Yet with no fielding restrictions in four day cricket and no penalty on leg side wides, finding and clearing the boundary became increasingly difficult as Sussex latterly had everyone on the boundary, bar for bowler and wicket keeper.
It was the knowledge of such things that caused me to declare the run chase unlikely, but Derbyshire can be proud of their efforts on the last day.
Leus du Plooy was again magnificent. Had he stayed for another two or three overs, the game would have been won. It was a superb century, scored at better than a run a ball and this season he has elevated himself from a very good player to one of international class.
In my humble opinion, the two best uncapped batters outside the England team are Sam Hain and the Derbyshire captain. It will be interesting to see which selectors try for his services first, as he could easily play for his native South Africa and would certainly enhance their side. That would of course limit his availability for a county side, who would have to recruit him as an overseas player. Yet in his form this season, most would consider that a very good move.
Madsen and du Plooy gave Derbyshire impetus, but it was during the partnership with Haider Ali that they took the initiative. The Pakistan player was in brilliant touch and batting gets little better than the partnership between the two, which added 145 in 20 overs. The timing and placement was a joy to behold and it was only when Ali was well held by Haines at mid off that the game changed.
Dal gave good support, but it was clear that the boundaries had to come from the captain, who perished trying to hit another six, to go with the three he already had. Ali managed four, but thereafter, with the fielders back, the rate got too high.
At the end of it all, it made for an engrossing final day, but the wait for four day victory goes on.
Magnificent entertainment though!
In other news, a century from Mitch Wagstaff and a half century from Yousaf Bin Naeem helped the second eleven to victory by three wickets over Nottinghamshire at Belper.
Good to see two young lads from our academy doing well. I hope and expect Mitch will get an opportunity to shine in the Royal London Cup
Hope Derbyshire can keep De-ploy
ReplyDeleteA magnificent failure. Not too much wrong with our batting but our bowling is a different matter.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I think that most of us would argue that the bowling has been the major weakness in our Championship team this season, a glance at the table shows that only 2 teams have more bowling bonus points than Derbyshire and only 1 team has less batting bonus points. And they say that statistics don't lie?
ReplyDeleteVery good point regarding the bonus points in Div 2, but the fact remains that our overseas bowler with Test experience, hasn't delivered as would have been expected.
DeleteIan. Sth Africa.
Generally our pace bowlers appear to lack stamina, 4 overs per spell most of the time. This is more noticeable in the second innings of matches where a potential winning position is eroded. This is not the first season where that has been the situation.
DeleteReply to Dave exiled in Lancs was from Dave B
DeleteA brilliant chase by Derbyshire, which looked unlikely at the beginning of the innings. Leus du Plooy was superb What a season he's had, so far, both in the CC and the T20. He's moved up a couple of gears and made himself one of the country's leading batsmen. He should get a call up from South Africa or England, but it's more likely to be the former, I guess.
ReplyDeleteAli produced a top innings, showing us what he can do.
In the end, once Thomson (and what a game he had!) was out, we were never going to get enough runs.
We didn't win, but we came so close.
What an amazing run chase and so frustrating to get so close. As PF said it was a rather cautious declaration and l really didn’t think we would get anywhere near the target. Leus du Plooy and Haider Ali have had some wonderful partnerships of late and this was another fine example, wish Ali had been moved down the order earlier in the season. We have only recently seen what a fine young cricketer he is since the change in the batting line up. Rather sad that it’s likely that du Plooy will probably be engaged by one of the test ground counties next season. Just left wondering what the result might have been if George Scrimshaw hadn’t been banned from bowling. Surely we would have been chasing a slightly smaller total.
ReplyDeleteNudger
Are we going to win a championship game this season. Because if not, surely we have gone backwards under Mickey Arthur's leadership and it would be classed as a shocking campaign ?
ReplyDeleteIts time Arthur came out and at least discussed the situation. Decisions, such as the one made at Hove at the toss are often wrong and the constant losing mentality is enveloping the club. There are some very good players in the side but too many are not up to County standard..I'd say around five or six. The management prior to the season and during the eedsseason has to my mind been totally unacceptable and needs change.
ReplyDeleteGood effort yesterday it does feel like Derbyshire are destined not to win a FC game this season, the news that Zac Chappell is off to join the 100 Circus now means Derbyshire have got to try and compete in the 50 over cup without four key one day players IMO it's beyond a joke
DeleteAt this stage of the season, my assessment is that we need to do much better and we need to find some consistency. The run chase at Hove will go down as one of the high points of the season.
ReplyDeletePromotion looks to have gone, but we still have the Royal London. However, with Chappell, Madsen du Plooy, and Scrimshaw playing in "the other competition", and, presumably, Khan not available, as the club web site says he was only signed for the T20, we don't look particularly strong, especially in our batting. I wonder if Mickey plans to sign another overseas batsman for the campaign.
The competition will, no doubt, provide opportunities for youngsters Harrison, Wagstaff and Potts to develop. Sussex's Nineteen-year-old James Coles, who scored 180 against us, his second century of the season, is a terrific example of a young player who has taken the opportunity given to him. Let's hope our youngsters can do the same.
Is that what the 50 cup has become nothing more than a youth development tournament for Derbyshire?
DeleteIt is for everyone. There are counties have lost way more players than we have to that nonsense. But those counties often carry bigger staffs anyway. If the likes of Wagstaff and Harrison take the most of opportunity it will be no bad thing.
DeleteI think what we can all agree on is that it's a complete mess wasn't there one particular day when there was a test match a 50 over and the 100 all being played at the same time
DeleteTrying to pick a possible team for the first Royal London isn't easy, given those playing in that competition we don't talk about and also injuries. This is what I've come up with:
ReplyDeleteWood
Came
Guest
Ali
Lamb if fit; Harrison if he's not, batting at six
Wagstaff
Dal
Reece
Thomson/McKiernan
Connors
Potts
It doesn't look a particularly strong line-up, but we don't have many options.
It provides a good opportunity for the youngsters to pick up experience and see where they are. Expectations on doing well should be limited, will be interesting to see the strength of other counties line ups. Martin
DeleteI would hope Lakmal will play. It isn't a bad team, but I haven't looked at who others have got missing to compare it, but having two overseas might be a plus
DeleteLakmal left the field mid spell yesterday seemingly with a groin problem .
DeleteHe's got over 2 weeks to get over it. Les Jackson played most of 1959 with a strapped groin and finished top of the averages...
DeleteI think people are being a bit negative. If we had a world class overseas bowler, we'd be up there. But how many counties are wishing for the same? Should have beaten Yorks and Leics really. Derbyshire tend to have one really bad session at the start of most games and yet drag themselves back into it. Kris
ReplyDeleteYes, as I said on my radio interview today, the difference between Durham and Derbyshire is that both their bowlers and batters have been consistent.
DeleteWith us it has often been one or the other. Lakmal hasn't led the attack as Mickey or we would have wanted, for whatever reason.
Sorting that for next year, whether from domestic recruits or an overseas, will dictate if he can turn it around
A great run chase, and almost a sensational victory. Madsen and du Plooy are players of high class, and Haider Ali is showing what might have been if he'd batted in the middle order from the start. But we are struggling as regards openers, so Lloyd's recruitment is welcome. Meanwhile we see other counties with teenagers capable of scoring centuries or even double centuries at first class level. If the products of our academy over the past fifteen years were compared with the academy products from other non Test ground counties, never mind the big guns, my guess is that we'd fare badly in the comparison.
ReplyDeleteJust as a sideline with the 50 over comp nearly upon us. I run a small transport company here on our little peninsula. We put some sponsor money into our local cricket club here. If we were treated as badly as Royal London have been with this much downgraded comp, I'd have pulled the plug ages ago. So well done to them.
ReplyDeleteI loathe the 100 thing. Know this makes me the dreaded male, white and middle aged punter, but the Vitality blast works just fine. Notice how many other cricket playing nations have adopted the format!
For me, the whole purpose of The Hundred was to develop a new format that they could financially exploit world wide. The E&WCB invented T20 but underplayed it and got surpassed by the IPL and others. Having realised they could not catch up with these franchised tournaments, they came up with hog wash that the wider public wanted a new format. It was complete rubbish. Derbyshire again had record attendances for T20 this year and included many of the Mums and kids who allegedly found other cricket too difficult to follow! The sooner the plug is pulled on The Hundred the better. I wonder how a potential international player states his case for 50 over odi selection as the likely candidates no longer play it. Craig
DeleteWhilst I am delighted Haider has contributed significantly since his demotion down the order we simply cannot have our overseas being a non bowling batter at 6! If and when Leus departs maybe next season we could bat him at 4 but coming in at 6 is simply too late. Paul
ReplyDeleteThink you are onto something there Craig. Remember 20/20 was introduced as a novelty at the start. They really did miss a trick when it morphed into the Big Bash or IPL.
ReplyDeleteNow we've got the hundred, which is destroying the schedule to promote a tournament no one else is interested in.
Why is this new American tournament not adopting the format? Can you tell me who won it last year? Heck, can you even name the teams?
Sorry to digress from Derbyshire Steve, but the 100 eats into our squad too. When we were at Manchester recently for the Vitality match, the two Derbyshire players we most wanted to see were the Captain and our most famous batsman (oops, batter), neither of whom are we going to see for a wee while...
ReplyDeleteI don't like the idea of going into the next 2 games without Madsen either, who I think is away with Italy. Kris
ReplyDeleteHe is, Kris. I am going to see Madsen v Watt in Edinburgh on 24 July
DeleteWatched the final of the T20 and I honestly didn't see Somerset winning that one after posting only 142 runs. But to their credit they bowled brilliantly after the first five overs anyway, Henry, Gregory, and particularly Sodhi all putting in great spells. Oh well, maybe one year we'll reach finals day, not sure which year it will be though
ReplyDelete