Thoughts on the Vitality Blast and the way forward

When all is done and dusted, with Yorkshire docked the expected points from their T20 season, Derbyshire will have finished 5th in the strong Northern group of the Vitality Blast.

Not a bad effort, though not good enough, of course. I have mentioned a time or two over the last few weeks that the anaemic displays against Northamptonshire at home and Durham away would likely cost us and so it transpired. Had both of those games been won, we would have gone through in fourth place, pipping Nottinghamshire..

We know that the talent is there. Birmingham strolled the group, losing only three games. Two of them were to Derbyshire. Why we can do that, yet implode twice against Nottinghamshire is a mystery. How do you rationalise the performance against Yorkshire at Headingley with the one against the same opponents at Chesterfield? 

It is frustrating, being a Derbyshire fan. When a side is capable of brilliance, which they showed against Birmingham, you might expect a drop just to 'good' on the bad days. Yet the gap between our best and worst is currently too big. 

Perhaps the fixtures didn't help. You can generally afford to lose six matches but still progress. When we produced the poor display against Northamptonshire, on the back of defeats to a strong Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, we had lost three from three, effectively needing eight wins from eleven and adding pressure.

A look at the averages is interesting. The slowest scorers of our top order batters were Haider Ali, at 137 and Luis Reece at 118. The fastest were Leus du Plooy, at 168, followed by Tom Wood at 161, yet the former scored only half of the runs made by Wayne Madsen, while the latter wasn't even in the side, until later in the competition.

He and Harry Came did very well, but played only 13 games between them. Poor team selection was definitely a contributor to our mixed performance. So too were slow starts. A minimum of fifty is really needed from the Powerplay, but too often we didn't get close to that.

The bowlers did pretty well, though only Zaman Khan and Mark Watt conceded less than nine an over through the tournament.  Zaman's value will have increased dramatically and I suspect he will be out of our range next year. 

Part of the issue was that we only had five bowlers. Madsen's bowling days appear behind him, so only Wood's off spin 'darts' were an option outside the five. Alex Hughes was missed, as were genuine all rounders.

For me, that has to be a focus of winter recruitment. Can Anuj Dal become a Hughes, or Steven Mullaney? Can we find a Mitchell Santner of our own, who averaged 36, scoring at 152, as well as bowling his overs at under eight for Worcestershire? 

If Mickey Arthur is to continue to use Pakistan as a source of overseas players, we need all rounders ourselves. Khushdil Shah or Kamran Ghulam would be exciting options, powerful stroke players and canny slow left arm bowlers both. Perhaps Mohammad Wasim Jr, as a quick seam bowling option who can hit a long ball? 

I think you need overseas players to offer more than one dimension, as Ali and Khan did. The former was a qualified success, the latter a total one, but, as a former player said to me today, how many games did either win outright? Both were livewires in the field, but that should be an expectation, not an added bonus.

Haider could be a top player, but too often attempts to go from 0-70 inside a couple of balls. I hope he has learned how to approach an innings from Wayne Madsen, or watches some videos of Dean Jones. The latter was rarely expansive early, but ticked the score over with ones or twos while he came to terms with conditions. THEN put the foot down.

I was surprised that Matt Lamb didn't make the side at all. I thought his impact on Derbyshire might have been the same as Hose had at Worcestershire, but he never appeared in the side after a back spasm ruled him out at the start. Perhaps he comes into the middle order if du Plooy leaves?

The side for next season will be much different, with question marks against most of them. Madsen, Guest, Came, Chappell, Lamb and Dal gives a strong nucleus, but at this stage, who will be alongside them is a moot point. Maybe Wood, who needs to use the Royal London to emphasise his credentials. Maybe one of the spinners, but I would be surprised if we can justify all three being on the staff. Watt appears best-placed, but he will always miss matches on Scotland duty. The others had good days, but it depends on who else is out there as to whether they are retained.

The decline in Luis Reece has been sad to see. His strike rate in 2021 was 171, but it dropped to 132 last year and 118 this season. There was a time when he was crucial to the side, but his bowling appears to not be trusted in this format and his top level batting game is missed. Can he get back to his earlier days?

Much to consider then. Can we finance a staff where several players are effectively single-format only? If not, then the claims of Wood, McKiernan, Thomson and Scrimshaw are not strong. Good players all, but for Derbyshire to be one of the top four in a strong Northern group, is the finance in place to enable better, more versatile players to come in? Can Ben Aitchison and Sam Conners develop their white ball games, as well as remaining injury-free?

Or do we just content ourselves with being a team that will challenge, but often frustrate in equal measure?

Can Mickey Arthur being in players to reinforce his mantra of Derbyshire being the county of choice? His overseas recruitment has to be right, as we have had next to no return on Suranga Lakmal.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.