Northamptonshire 194-6 (Bopara 84*, Willey 37, Ghazanfar 2-30)
Derbyshire 188-4 (Patel 83*, Jewell 71, Willey 2-19)
Northamptonshire won by six runs
After early wickets again fell to the magic of Ghazanfar, Bopara, a seasoned veteran, assessed the situation, stabilised the innings and then cut loose at the tail end, when he had the measure of the pitch.
So well did he play, despite Derbyshire bowling quite well in the first half of the innings, that 37 runs came from the final ten deliveries. Those runs took the Derbyshire chase from 'steady' to one marked 'there be danger ahead'.
There was good fielding - Martin Andersson holding a very good catch in the deep - and bad - the same player miscalculating his position and stepping over the rope. Zak Chappell also put one down he would hold nine times out of ten.
Ben Aitchison bowled tidily on his call up to the side, until taking some stick in his last over. The rest were tidy, but not much more than that, until all suffered in the final onslaught, as the visitors added 95 in the final eight overs of the innings.
A good start chasing 195 was essential, but having watched Bopara from very close quarters during his marvellous innings, Donald appeared to have learnt nothing and hit his second ball straight up in the air. I know it is how he plays the game, but it showed little awareness of the game situation and did nothing for his team's hopes.
When David Lloyd was caught at slip, also from the bowling of the excellent David Willey, the Derbyshire start was little better than we had managed at Leicester last week. A couple of fine shots by Caleb Jewell gave the score a little more respectability, but the dismissal of Madsen in the final over of the Powerplay, from another poor shot, left us 38-3 and with a mountain to climb. Two matches in and we have made a sow's ear of two Powerplays now...
The problem with Samit at five is that every ball is a slog and can hint of desperation, while there is no urgency to the running. And by the end of the thirteenth over, Jewell had faced only 31 deliveries.
But tonight was Samit's night and he batted superbly. He rode his luck, played some stunning strokes and his partnership with Caleb added 114 in 11 overs, before the latter was caught on the fence after a fine display. At one point it looked like it just might to be possible, but at the death the wiles of Willey and Sanderson were too much.
Just like at Leicester we battled hard, but we left ourselves too much to do. There needs to be a rethink about the top order, because Donald has gone for two ducks in three balls, when a man in prime form, Martin Andersson, didn't bat tonight.
A semi-decent Powerplay and we won that game.
I doff my chapeau to Messrs Jewell and Patel, but they simply had too much to do.
Definitely a night for the veterans, wasn't it?
An entertaining game tonight, though obviously the result was disappointing. I am more concerned about our pace bowlers ability to contain than I am about our batting. In the 2 games so far our pace attack has come off second compared to the opposition pace attack. The challenge with Donald is how do you get him in form when there is a game every few days. I don’t think w3 are far off, same team Friday for me
ReplyDeleteBopara and Willey are two class players and what a difference they made. We so needed a good start but Donald's shot that got him out seemed to be one of a player in wretched form and zero confidence to get himself out of the slump. Surely a change required for Friday
ReplyDeleteYou do have to wonder if Middlesex's best T20 player last season and arguably our player of the season so far, bowling 1 over and not batting, is the way forward? We can't afford many more batting power plays, like the ones so far, that's for sure. Kris
ReplyDeleteWe dropped 3 catches in the space of 8 balls at mid innings which ultimately cost us the game …
ReplyDeleteHaving seen a couple of interviews with Donald, he comes across as a reasonably intelligent lad, but stick a cricket bat in his hand and that perceived intelligence disappears completely. This has been his modus operandi throughout his very chequered career and it’s glaringly apparent why he was moved on by Glamorgan and Hampshire. Indeed, it’s fair to say that both of our Welsh imports have been underwhelming since arriving at Derbyshire. Arthur needs to change the personnel quickly so that our batting power plays do not continually cost us the game. I also don’t think that playing our home games with ridiculously short boundaries does anyone any favours (apart from helping save Samit from running twos).
ReplyDeleteI don’t agree that the boundaries were “ridiculously” short for T20. We needed to turn more 1s into 2s and there were plenty of possibilities if Samit had run the first quicker, especially with wickets in hand.
DeleteA tremendous effort by Jewell and Patel after our second poor start in the campaign. We lost by a whisker.
ReplyDeleteFor our game against Notts, perhaps Donald should drop down the order and Andersson bat higher up. Brown is leaking too many runs, but I think he'll come good.
Despite us losing our first two games, I think we will turn things around.
Martin Andersson's contribution to the game with bat and ball being 1 over (which saw a wicket and just 8 runs conceded) just seems ill-thought. Not using Whiteley for an over or 2 also seems a waste.
ReplyDeleteI will be disappointed if we just roll out with the same approach on Friday night. The balance of the team just isn’t right.
Donald needs to be replaced by Brooke now, how much longer can we persist with a player who has no form, Brooke has at least batted this season and done ok. David Lloyd is another batsman who concerns me in this format, I just don't see the runs coming from him, and if they ever do it will be at a snail's pace.
ReplyDeleteAt the other end it doesn't look much better, Ghazanfar the standout in these first two games, the rest have to step up quick, our seamers have been disappointing. Lots of questions to be answered in these first two games and Notts are up next, we need a win quick - Chesterfield Blue
Personally I wouldn’t change the team much. We need a result on Friday I would be tempted to play Reece (is he fit?) just curve ball idea. The batting order desperately needs to change as Anderson batting needs to be included. We need to back Donald it’s why he is here. He destructive player on his day. He had a lot bad fortune this season. He going to be playing as made decision on Guest. I would bat him at 5 promote Anderson to opener.
ReplyDeleteIt was shame it was Wednesday night game. It was great match. It was very flat in terms of crowd. I think these Wednesday games need to be scrapped as that was great advertisement for T20. The ECB need to stick to Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Yea maybe more double headers.
We saw T20 match winners in this game. Unfortunately, they both play for Northamptonshire.
ReplyDeleteClose and well fought by Patel and Jewell but no cigar yet. A few tweaks are required.
ReplyDeleteGuest for Donald
Reece for Brown
Move Whiteley up the order - he looks in good nick and, as an experienced match winner, is wasted coming in at 6 or 7
Make more use of the talented Andersson.
Keep our new overseas spinner up our sleeves rather than using him up in the power play.
Andy
There are better players waiting in the wings than Donald and Lloyd.
ReplyDeleteGuest has to play surely.
So much for the thought of preparing a slow turner of a pitch. Willey & Sanderson (8 overs for 53) sealed the game in hindsight..maybe Patel & Jewell could have started playing shots earlier but its hard to criticise those two. If you get two scores of 70 & 80 odd in the same team you tend to win T20 games! Donald will win us 2 or 3 games but in the others we'll be not may for 1 early on. Was it well played Bopara or poor death bowling?
ReplyDeleteI keep reading that Donald will win us games. How many T20 games has he won for us? I can think of 1.
DeleteThe make up of the team seems wrong to me. We went into last nights match with probably 7 players capable of bowling a full stint (if you include Lloyd). I would advocate switching one of the specialist bowlers, probably Brown or Aitchison, for Guest. This would allow Guest to keep, and let Donald concentrate on his batting. All he needs is for an edge to just evade a fielder and he could be on his way to a good score, such are the fine margins in this format.
ReplyDeleteAlso, just a quick word on the live stream last night, which I thought was very poor. Far too much reliance on the midwicket camera at the expense of the behind the bowlers cameras. Too much panning round the crowd between overs which sometimes meant the first ball of the next over was missed. Generally all too jerky. Graphics wrong, frequently suggesting that bowlers that had already bowled 4 overs were coming on to bowl. Nothing to say on the commentary as I watched most of last night on mute. I know Dave Fletcher isn't everyones cup of tea, but I quite like his style.
Completely agree with your comments regarding the live feed - it’s very poor overall, but shockingly poor when compared to the exemplars at other counties.
DeleteI agree, the stream last night was poor. The worst I've seen from us.
DeleteAt least with the commentary muted, you didn't hear our commentator referring to Bopara (instead of Patel) batting for us!. There was plenty of other nonsense too. I thought Greg Cork and Blair Tickner were good.
So after watching that, where do we go? For me, moving Donald down the order is probably not a good idea. If he is going to come off, it's likely he can do more in the power play. I would persist with him. There is an issue of whether lloyd is in the right format. Taking this and last season into account, he is not effective in this format. How about moving Andersson up the order and replacing Lloyd with Guest? Dropped catches actually cost us last night.
ReplyDeletethe margins in this format are so small. the difference between the 2 sides was basically putting a foot over the rope so it was a 6 rather than wicket!
ReplyDeleteI think we still have a lot of potential in this format but the balance is off. Having andersson who's in great form with bat and ball, only bowl 1 over and not bat seems like a real waste. Whitely also needs to be higher up as his t20 experience is invaluable (look at Bopara and Patel yesterday!) and we aren't making use of it.
and our fielding needs some work and quick!
there's simply no excuse for dropping 3-4 catches in less than 2 overs at this level and if we held them I believe we probably would have won.
like the old adage says- catches win matches!
Facet
I agree with most comments. The top order and some of the bowling needs to be rethought - the key difference with the ball last night was David Willey (2-19 off 4 overs as well as 37 off 31). If we had someone bowling like that we would have won.
ReplyDeleteMaybe taking the gloves from Donald would have a positive impact on his batting ? I would definitely have Guest as keeper and his batting would be very useful in the middle order. Andersson should open the batting or be at number 3 instead of Lloyd (and his bowling should be used more). Patel was great with the bat yesterday but turning some ones into twos would have made all the difference. We’re not far but away need that first win urgently.