Derbyshire 133-7 (Lloyd 50, Guest 33*)
Birmingham 136-3 (Mousley 66*, Hain 43, Brown 2-25)
Birmingham won by seven wickets
But we didn't score enough runs. I said to my daughter after two overs of our innings, if we could get 150 I fancied our chances. We didn't get there, despite the best efforts of David Lloyd and Brooke Guest, but it was a good game of cricket.
To be honest, I enjoy that sort of game more than when 220 plays 215. I just feel it is a better battle between bat and ball. The difference today was that the visitors had four good spin options and we had two, plus Wayne Madsen, who hasn't bowled for a long time.
It was never easy to score runs, that much was obvious when Nye Donald was struggling to get it off the pitch. Lloyd and Guest gave us something to bowl at, but another twenty might have made them fret a little.
As it was, after a good power play, they only needed to knock it around. One player to bat through was the requirement and Mousley and Hain showed great common sense in their approach as Birmingham won with relative ease. Derbyshire took it deep, which is some consolation, but we will want to win the next one and go in to the break at 4/4.
The group is wide open, everyone in it seems capable of beating everyone out, so there is still a lot to play for.
More from me soon.
I'm sorry but we're seeing too many of these non competitive performances so far in this blast. Have we a mental block when facing the more powerful counties, because that's three hammering now at the hands of Lancs, Yorkshire, and now Birmingham .
ReplyDeleteWhy on earth we decided to bat first is anybody's guess as Birmingham made batting look straightforward, terrible decision .
And we desperately need other batsmen to find some form as Lloyd and Donald are carrying the team, just so poor all round today
It was the right decision to bat, because the pitch was expected to get slower and it did. But we needed to back up the decision by scoring 20 to 25 more than we did.
DeleteWhat concerns me is the form of Patel, Whiteley and Madsen. The first two have achieved only one big score each in seven games while Wayne's last three scores have been 3,0,0. As you say CB we cannot keep relying on our openers and someone else needs to step forward with a big innings.
ReplyDeleteWell that's one winnable game thrown away as usual by Derbyshire
ReplyDeleteLloyd getting fifty and out next ball, hitting six and someone else getting out next ball. Wayne's second consecutive 0 both soft dismissals. Some strange bowling orders from Samit.Excellent spell from Wagstaff who must be playing in all forms every game by no later than the 2026 season coincidentally the season after Wayne retires. The game was their to be won today against a side who will in my opinion make Finals day. Their a very good team who won't be far away from winning the competition. Yet again a Derbyshire side who can't quite get over the hump. Absolutely must WIN game against Notts now on Friday. A loss and I personally feel we're out. Because that would mean 5 wins out of the last 6 would probably be needed to qualify for the quarters.Frankly Derbyshire aren't anywhere near consistent enough to pull that off.
Are you sure about batting first Steve.? I feel once you have a team identity then you go with it 19 times out of 20. We're clearly a chasing team. Even if the Bears had got 165 we would I believe have chased that down. Better the devil you know than the one you don't. In t20 cricket the message is clear, bat first, bat first, and bat first again. Unless you are utterly convinced theirs a good reason not to. For me a worn pitch in a three hour game is not enough of a reason to bat second. But as always it's all about different opinions.
ReplyDeleteSteve jr.
I don't think a winning team can only do one thing. For me, it was the right decision to bat, but we didn't bat well enough. Only 3 of the batters are showing any consistency and that is the crux of the problem
DeleteBatting first was the obvious thing to do. The problem was, we then seemed unable to accept that 150 to 160 would be a good score.
ReplyDeleteIt's OK having intent, but this ultra positive approach that Samit wants us to take is too often leading to the loss of needless wickets, like his own today. Too many dot balls, (again).
Also, it's inviting problems when playing on a used pitch against a team rocking up with an army of slow bowlers (13 overs worth). One wonders if there was any consideration given to bringing in Thomson for one of the seamers....
Agreed Jasper. Thomson would have enjoyed bowling on a pitch where the slows were hard to get away. A bold decision but justified today, for me
DeleteAlthough I'm following the England game and Bellingham has just scored, I'm still annoyed with the Derbyshire players and their inability to stand up in importance games. Lose against Notts on Friday and be 3 & 5 at the break then I fear that's it for another year.Its so frustrating.I was sat 20 yards from the dugout I didn't like what I saw. We keep hearing about team spirit and how good it is. Ive mentioned on here before how I've played at lot of sport. Well I'm far from convinced they even know what it. Take one of my Sports Basketball and watch what togetherness really is. Im sorry to say I saw a subdued dugout with a poor attitude from players who weren't playing. To me they don't understand their role. That dugout was devoid of any intensity or passion. As far as I'm concerned they don't understand what it's all about. I've learnt something today although I've throught it for years theirs something lacking in the culture.
ReplyDelete30 runs short today and too light on slow bowling options .. must win Friday
ReplyDeleteWinning the toss and batting is fine provided you make best use of that decision. We didn’t and paid the penalty. Too many not contributing with the bat doesn’t help the cause. We cannot rely on Lloyd, Donald and Guest every game.
ReplyDeleteThink it was asking a lot of Madsen to bowl when he hasn’t turned his arm over for some time. Agree with earlier contributor that on a worn pitch the selection of Thomson would have been worthwhile. Mitch Wagstaff did a good job against a strong batting line up and deserves his place.
Frustrating that we cannot find any consistency with the batting and this will be our downfall if it’s not rectified.
Nudger
I think we miss Mark Watt in this form of the game. I'm not sure what Whiteley's role is either. Part time bat and even more part time bowler. We are very inconsistent. Kris
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to wonder if a lot of the pre season talk from Mickey was nothing more than hubris. He's seen signed some big hitters, no doubt, but we still have the same problem that we've had for ages: inconsistency. Pitch or no pitch, we should have got to at least 170. But we hardly hit any boundaries. Our batting seemed to grind to a halt. Madsen, Patel, and Whiteley got out cheaply, once again.
ReplyDeleteOur bowlers did okay, but the Bears never really looked like losing.
I enjoyed being at the ground today but I didn’t think it was much of a match - there weren’t many moments when I doubted that Warwickshire would win. Choosing to bat seemed odd, even allowing for the comments about it being a tired pitch. Once Donald was out, we didn’t get a lot of a sense that we’d score a lot, although Lloyd did well (although we needed 75-85 from him, not 50). We ended up about thirty short. When we bowled, again, I had no sense that we had a chance to win. I get the comments about the value of spin in this match but all three wickets fell to seamers and I never thought Patel, Wagstaff or Madsen looked like getting anyone out (and how Wayne ended up bowling three overs I’ve got no idea). Perhaps I’m just unlucky but living where I do in Cleckheaton, the three games I’ve been able to see live have been this one, Yorkshire at headingley last week, and Lancashire at OT the week before that, and in each of those games we have been uncompetitive, leaden footed, and strategically confused. I hope I’m wrong, and I often am, but I’m feeling very dispirited tonight.
ReplyDeleteAndy T
Because we set a below par score, their batters were able to 'sit in' against our slower bowlers and just 'milked' them for one's and two's as required and punished any bad balls. In contrast, look at the dismissals of Lloyd and Patel.
DeleteWarwickshire quickly assessed the conditions, their quicker bowlers bowled a lot of pace off deliveries, and executed those skills better than ours.
We're at home, we should know our pitch and conditions. Poor cricket from us, and they showed us how to play on a pitch like that. Thoroughly outclassed, unfortunately.
Some tricky games to come, win on Friday and we're in the mix, but nothing I've seen so far has changed my opinion that we will win a few, but enough to qualify? That close defeat against Northamptonshire may well prove to be the difference....
As for Whiteley, I’ve got no idea what’s going on. He’s had one stellar match and otherwise it’s like he’s just making up the numbers. If that’s all he’s going to do we’d be better off without the expense, and playing Dal or Thomson instead.
ReplyDeleteAndy T
I'm utterly convinced that the key to many a Derbyshire side is their mentality, or lack of. I really do feel that a sports phycologist is would be worth try.I feel their would be nothing to lose. Theirs nothing wrong with trying different things in fact it's arguably a strength not a weakness. It's alright continually talking about actual cricket but when year in year out we continue to be brittle and prone to failure it's about time another approach was considered.
ReplyDeleteWhile we can still qualify the fragility of Derbyshire suggests we won't. If we need to win 5 out of the last 6 then all the evidence points towards that we aren't capable of doing that. For me everything is on the Notts match. I predicted at the start we had to be no worse than 4 & 4 at the break. And that's come true.
ReplyDeleteSteve Jr
Well you can bet your bottom dollar that Notts won't be as poor 2nd time round Steve and will be out for revenge. At Trent Bridge as well, so I don't think we'll beat them both times unfortunately. We're just too inconsistent with performances to qualify, and so far the big hitters that we thought we were signing just haven't hit big
DeleteThat's a genuine worry Notts are due to come good, and when they do it'll be very good. Probably a good spanking awaits someone before the end of the competition. Plus they won't say but they'll be desperately wanting to put one over on Samit. But the Flip side is we played almost perfect cricket against them a few days ago. One of the rare occasions we were excellent in all three facets batting bowling and fielding. Anything close to that and we'll beat them again on Friday. Problem is that word IF.
DeleteSteve jr.
Just something Jasper said and it's an excellent point about believing 150 plus would be a competitive score and genuinely believing it would be. This I believe is and has been a problem for Derbyshire teams both past and present. They give good interviews before hand and often afterwards but the bit in the middle they can't execute time and time again
ReplyDeleteAt the start of the season, I looked at our batting and thought that, for once, we have plenty of real big hitters and we can bat deep. To win games, you need someone who can score 70 or 80 and two or three others to make decent contributions and find the boundary at regular intervals. For me, Lloyd, Guest and Donald have been the stand out batsmen up to now. Madsen, Patel, and Whiteley have all produced good knocks, but they have all failed to get going too many times. We have yet to see how destructive Fletcher can be.
ReplyDeleteEach to their own, but as far as Brooke Guest is concerned I would either open with him in T20 (where he could rotate the strike with Donald or Lloyd) or not play him at all. To occupy the crease for the best part of an hour with just one boundary is not acceptable in this format.
ReplyDeleteMark, High Peak