Birmingham 233-5 (Latham 104, Davies 89, Aitchison 4-45)
Derbyshire 106 (Chappell 23, Lintott 3-27)
Birmingham won by 127 runs
It was embarrassing to watch. Like watching a rerun of the game at Edgbaston, but with body language much worse from the Derbyshire players. Tom Latham and Alex Davies scored pretty much at will and the home side were simply not at the races.
Once again the shining light was Mohammad Ghazanfar with the ball, the only bowler who would be pleased with his figures. He has done well and let no one down, but I would expect he will be picked up by a more affluent county next year. Ben Aitchison took another four wickets, but the bowling has been an issue all summer in this competition and last night was no exception.
The two-year 'experiment' with experience has failed in white ball cricket. In his post-match interview, Mickey Arthur seemed to allude to going in a different direction for next year and for the Metro Bank Cup. This is 100% the right thing to do. The biggest disappointment for me is that there was no cricket for younger players in this competition, even after qualification became less likely than Lord Lucan riding Shergar into the ground for the Leicestershire match.
There has to be some serious discussion about next year and rather than giving final contracts to people after long and worthy careers, we need to be signing young men with reputations to build. A few summers ago, we had Ethan Brookes on trial from Warwickshire and presumably the opportunity to sign him. He is now starring for Worcestershire and there are plenty like him around the shires.
Soon after Samit Patel signed for the club, two former professionals contacted me and told me not to expect many runs from him 'as the eyes have gone, and it is well known on the circuit'. One said that soon as he came in, the quick bowler would be brought back and the short balls would bring about his demise. So it transpired, too often for comfort. He had his moments in the sun for us and can reflect on a magnificent career, one in which he played for his country and travelled the world playing the game. Ten years from now he will still be able to bowl a line and length, but we need to have a more mobile, agile, youthful side that can grow together. Like it or not, time waits for no man..
Who stays to be a part of this is a moot point. It largely depends on who is available and is an improvement on existing personnel. I will stand by my assertion earlier in the week that our greater need is two bowlers from overseas in this competition, because that is where we have lost matches. The bowling has simply not been good enough and the scores made against us this summer confirm that.
It isn't an exact science. Nottinghamshire supporters were probably very pleased when they picked up Daniel Sams, but he has conceded over ten an over and contributed only brief cameos with the bat. Hampshire signed two bright young things from South Africa, Pretorius and Brevis, but without real return.
There also needs to be greater clarity in team selection and batting order. We didn't get it right this year and although I am sure considerable thought went into the competition, it really didn't seem like that at times.
I like Harry Came as a cricketer, but I am not yet convinced this is his format. Why did Mitch Wagstaff not play last night, when Pat Brown did but was only given one over? I could go on, but it is at risk of being akin to a broken record.
For me the next T20 skipper should be Nye Donald and we should introduce the likes of Amrit Basra and Rory Haydon in the Metro Bank Cup. Mitch Wagstaff too, who may yet make it at this level, but we will never know, if he isn't given opportunity.
It is all well and good Mickey Arthur espousing giving youth an opportunity in a post-match interview, but a few weeks ago he said that young players would get that when we could no longer qualify in the T20. It didn't happen and for me was an opportunity missed.
Back to red ball and the huge game against Leicestershire on Tuesday. But this has to be bubbling away in the background, because the 2025 Vitality Blast competition was a huge disappointment.
The talent is there - the wins we had saw some good cricket played - but the defeats showed that a massive rethink is required and a change of personnel has to be a part of that.
Postscript: I was on North Derbyshire radio again last night, talking about recent matches, wins and losses.
You can listen to it here
I am on at 39.50 in the excellent hour-long sports show.
I'm not sure I agree with you Steve about the talent being there as some of our 10 defeats have been absolutely massive. Our young overseas spin bowler will go elsewhere so who would you keep for next season - Nye Donald, Wayne and er, not sure who else. Something has to be horribly wrong with the Blast bowling coaching or planning because it is consistently poor.
ReplyDeleteAlso our head of cricket contradicts himself, often in the same interview. He says he likes his brand of cricket to be young and energetic players but decided to go a different direction. He says he has loved every minute of working with Samit but then says it hasn't been good enough.
Let's just say I'm not confident our fortunes are going to change anytime soon.
Nor am I, OA. But they have to build around Donald, Madsen, Guest, Andersson, Aitchison.
DeleteHard to believe Chappell and Brown have lost it after doing so well and perhaps you look at the bowling coach?
But there's a lot of gaps and opportunities for them to be filled..
Aitchison is a very poor t20 bowler, he's taken a few wickets but gone for boatloads of runs. The fact that Brown and Chappell did as well though may suggest he along with the other two are still capable of a more reasonable economy.
DeleteArthur's two year experiment with experience has been an utter disaster. We could have had Ethan Brookes and instead we plumped for Patel and Whiteley and the likes of Wagstaff barely gets a chance.
Ben has played little T20 so I think there is room for improvement in him and, with nine wickets in 2 games, there is clear potential.
ReplyDeleteI think we start again and give young players a chance. We lose, so be it. But we did that anyway and will be better in some areas of the game
KJB Loyal I cannot publish your latest comment as it isn't fair on a named person and a couple who could be easily inferred. But I take your point...
ReplyDeleteI expected a defeat last night. But not the poor attitude. It's been an awful Blast with very few highlights. I accept we are a small club compared to say the Bears. But that performance and attitude makes me close to not renewing membership.
ReplyDeleteLast night was dreadful & must be in the top 10 of our worst ever performances. The campaign as a whole has been very poor, Patels captaincy & leadership shocking. This plan of bowling spin in the powerplay has not worked on most wickets, but we stubbornly continued to stick to it.
ReplyDeleteNext years captain? An all formats overseas would be ideal, but there aren’t many Eddie Barlows out there. From within our ranks Donald or Chappell would be candidates.
MarkB
I can't understand why Anuj Dal is overlooked for the 20s Peakfan.He can hit a ball long and his excellent fielding alone will save us runs.We still have some experienced heads in there but undoubtedly youth must be the way forward even if it means we lose more than we win again.Topspinner
ReplyDeleteNo shortage of poor performances over the years and that one was amongst the worst.
ReplyDeleteBaffling nonsense from MA as usual.
Contradictory. What happened to giving some of the fringe players some playing experience?
I am desperately hoping that the red ball game will not be compromised by what happened in the Blast.
We will see.
It was painful watching the game on the stream last night. We just seemed to be going through the motions, with both bat and ball.
ReplyDeleteWhy did Brown not come on until the latter stages of the game? And he only bowled one over. Was this the plan? It might have been better to play Dal or Potts.
I was surprised that Patel's departure was announced just before the start of the game. Did the players already know?
Consistency was the main problem in the campaign, something both Mickey and Patel acknowledged in their interviews.
Lots of rebuilding needs to be done after the experiment of what Dave Fletcher called "the Haarlem Globetrotters".
Surely we need a conventional leg spinner and medium pacer in this format, who get through the middle overs quickly. Wagstaff only goes for 8 in T20 cricket, but has disappeared! Kris
ReplyDeleteI'm fully expecting our red ball cricket to implode from now on in and we'll probably finish fourth or fifth. That was an abject surrender last night an insult to the paying spectators, we just didn't care.
ReplyDeleteWe need a huge overhaul for next seasons t20 but it obviously can't and won't happen. Donald, Maddo, Andersson? are the only ones you can say have given us something in this blast, the rest fits and starts. Ghazanfar will go elsewhere, he's been brilliant the standout bowler by a country mile. So disappointing this t20 campaign, never expected us to finish rock bottom. MA out!
No point in the last sentence, CB. Like it or not, he is contracted to the end of 2026 and we couldn't afford to pay him off AND recruit...
DeleteI do hope they use the one day cup as an opportunity to rotate a few of the youngsters in alongside some of our experienced players it would give us an indication of what they are capable of and valuable game time. Hopefully the fine form in the county championship continues which has been refreshing to see thus far. Really disappointed about the T20 however, the bowling is just not good enough and has let us down time and again. We won’t win many games constantly chasing 200 plus. I think 2 or 3 others will follow Patel out of the door. Looking at players out of contract there are a couple of real prospects available batting wise, I’d go all out to get Matt Montgomery from Notts, perhaps he will be tempted with regular game time in all formats. Another one worth considering is perhaps Joe Weatherley from Hampshire, again he’s not had regular game time and could prosper from that. Bowlers seem a bit harder to come by, perhaps James Taylor might be tempted to return from Surrey or you could try for someone experienced like Matt Milnes or Josh Davey if of course they’d have an interest in coming. Would love to know thoughts. Hopefully there’s a more positive rest of the season ahead let’s get behind them!
ReplyDeleteI would go for Montgomery, Elliott and have said so before. Your other names are interesting and I am hoping to publish a list of out of contract players from around the country shortly
DeleteA Head of Cricket with such a dismal record as MA would have got the sack from any other club. At Derbyshire he is given repeated extensions to his contract. His T20 policy has been a disaster. Last night's performance was nothing short of an annihilation , a total shambles and an embarrassment. It was like watching a boxer's corner throwing in the towel.
ReplyDeleteA complete change of policy and playing personnel is needed for next season if we are to make any progress in the T20.
Thing is, a complete change requires a lot of money. It also needs considerably more people out of contract than we currently have. It might be that a player decides a career outside the game has better long-term potential, but without that we are fairly limited. There needs to be players available who are better than we have, are affordable and want to come to Derbyshire. That would make for a very interesting Venn diagram!
DeleteI agree, a dreadful campagne. Positives Donald and Ghazanfar, Wayne was Wayne, but after that nothing. If my analysis is correct, of the bowlers who bowled more than 100 balls in the blast, only 5 conceded more than 10,6 runs per over and 3 are ours (Aitchison, Chappell and Brown). Coaching and change needed!
ReplyDeleteFor next year, a big rethink is necessary. What is the point of specialist t20 players if they don’t perform? Build a team around Aneurin Donald as captain and see what happens. I notice that Worcester opened with a 17 year old the other night. Can our youngsters do much worse than this year?
I really hope that we can continue the good form in the 4-day because promotion is possible. Again we should give a chance to the younger players: is Wagstaff for Lloyd a trade-down? Potts or Haydon for Pat Brown (3 wickets at 56) the same. Let’s be bold with the selection, including in the 50 overs. If we don’t give players the chance we’ll never know.
Allez Derbyshire
Adrian, Nice