Northamptonshire v Derbyshire Vitality Blast

Derbyshire 162-7 (Lloyd 41, Madsen 37)

Northamptonshire 163-5 (Bopara 56, Vasconcelos 42, Raza 38 Brown 3-33, Chappell 2-29)

Northamptonshire won by 5 wickets

Derbyshire lost their opening game of the Vitality Blast in a last ball thriller at Northampton. There was a battling display in the field that augured well, with Ross Whiteley and Pat Brown outstanding, while Brown and Zak Chappell were excellent with the ball.

But in the words of the old Johnny Nash song, after watching tonight's game there are more questions than answers. 

My opinion is that an opening partnership of Luis Reece and Harry Came is too slow. The former used to be a real dasher in this format, but was less so last year, scoring at 118 per hundred balls. 22 from 23 balls at the start of the innings is way too slow, especially if you don't bat on and accelerate. I feared the worst tonight when I saw that Nye Donald was missing, but hoped that we might mix it up at the top, Lloyd opening, because Madsen is too low at four, for me. He is the best T20 bat and needs as much time at the crease as possible.

Then again, Whiteley at seven is plain daft. What is he supposed to do in the last five overs? Surely you want a bloke who can hit the ball into a neighbouring county at the crease with ten overs in which to do it? 

Shouldn't Ross have been above the skipper? It might be early days, but having watched Samit in a couple of games, there is a suggestion that his hand/eye coordination is perhaps not what it was. I suspect a few opponents might bring on the quicks when he comes to the crease..

I suggested in the winter and early Spring that an overseas spinner who bats was our greater need for T20. Such a player would have been a greater asset tonight than a second overseas player who didn't make the team and wasn't announced as injured. Again, I said before the season that with Brown and Chappell good at the format, two overseas quicks was one too many. If the master plan is to rotate them, why are we playing one overseas player in a competition that allows two? Why do we have a third seamer coming in, regardless of his reputation?

Patel martialled his troops well and the ground fielding was excellent. He also bowled a canny spell, but he got the bowling wrong by entrusting the last over to Luis Reece, who to my knowledge has never bowled a death over before. Then again, would Luis have had to bowl it were there a second overseas bowler in the mix? One might also question why Alex Thomson was selected but didn't bowl his full allocation.

Earlier David Lloyd batted brilliantly, Wayne Madsen played very well but we cannot lose so many early deliveries to dot balls. Better sides than Northamptonshire lie ahead and we will be more severely punished. As it was, Raza and Bopara proved the difference between the two sides, the latter excellent with bat and ball.

In conclusion? There are reasons to be cheerful, but we must hope that Madsen isn't too badly injured having not fielded, and we badly need Donald back for the next game for early impetus.

We nearly pulled a rabbit from the hat tonight. But that particular trick won't work very often if we don't sort the batting inadequacies. 

As for the mystery of the missing overseas...Agatha Christie alone may have the answer to that one.

In closing, a mention for the excellent camera work tonight, though the home commentators left a lot to be desired in the bit I listened to. 

Confusing Reece and Lloyd isn't overly impressive when they are left and right-handed respectively, while Alex Thomson apparently scored a double hundred for us in the last game...

More questions than answers indeed, like some of my old exam papers. 

Six out of ten. Must do better.