Derbyshire v Worcestershire Metro Bank Cup

Derbyshire 315 (Jewell 113, Montgomery 92, Khurram 3-49, Allison 3-51, Singh 3-58)

Worcestershire 317-6 (D'Oliveira 138, Libby 69, Lategan 42* Haydon 3-59)

Worcestershire won by 4 wickets 

A day that began so well for Derbyshire petered out in the scenic splendour of Repton School today.

Excellent knocks by centurion Caleb Jewell and a classy 92 from Matt Montgomery gave them a platform to post a minimum of 350, but poor shot selection after they were dismissed saw Derbyshire unable to even bat out their 50 overs. 

You can score quickly on small grounds, but with that comes a tendency to try and overhit, which is largely what happened in the second half of our innings. Leaving seventeen balls unused is pretty average at this level, even though Singh, Allison and Shahzad bowled well for the visitors.

Jewell was at his flamboyant best, cover driving with majesty and moving across his stumps to utilise a short legside boundary. He and Montgomery added 150 from 24 overs of classy batting after Harry Came went to an injudicious pull.

The power and timing in Jewell's shots at his best is remarkable, yet Montgomery matched him in a display that promised much. He keeps the score ticking over by opening the face of the bat and running it down to third man on a regular basis, but later he unveiled a full range of shots and would have been disappointed to miss out on a century, one that was there for the taking with eleven overs to go.

Guest was unlucky, playing on after appearing to be in fine fettle, but when Montgomery went, a healthy 267-3 became 315 all out in ten manic overs.

I am a huge fan of Amrit Basra, but with ten overs to go there was no need to play the stroke that he did to the third ball that he faced. Whiteley and Chappell went tamely and the tail surrendered to a total that on a small ground looked barely adequate. Andersson played well for a time, but supporters were left wondering what might have been. No doubt Jewell and Montgomery had similar thoughts, after the strong position that their knocks created.

I think Worcestershire put Derbyshire in, after winning the toss, because they didn't know what a good score would be on this ground. But six an over for a long batting line up seemed eminently doable, even after Aitch and H removed Mohammad and Kashif early, in good opening bursts. It brought together the vast experience of D'Oliveira and Libby, who started to milk the attack nicely. 

Their stand of 183 runs went on to define the match. The former played with his usual freedom and dished out heavy punishment, while Libby, realising his partner only needed a sound accompanist, simply played professional cricket. By the halfway stage, only common sense cricket was required, because the loose balls were frequent enough to offer regular boundaries on a small ground.

D'Oliveira went on to an excellent century, but as I messaged friends earlier, we were fifty runs short of leaving him and his team needing to take risks. 

There was a glimmer of hope when D'Oliveira was caught on the boundary edge by Aitchison off the bowling of Morley. Realising he was going to step over the rope in completing the catch, Ben flicked the ball into the air, seemingly taking it again with both feet inside the rope. It appeared a poor decision by the umpires, who really should trust the honesty of the fielder in that situation. With cameras trained on their every move, who would seriously risk reputational damage in claiming a catch that wasn't? D'Oliveira was bowled shortly afterwards for an excellent 138, but the game was effectively won by that stage. The young South African-born Dan Lategan saw them home without any major alarms, playing some crisp strokes in the process on his debut.

It was a game lost, when the platform for a win had been expertly built in the first two hours. Rory Haydon was again impressive, after also getting a shocking decision when he batted briefly earlier, but he and Ben Aitchison were the only bowlers to exert any control. They offer potential for another year, but it was all we had to cheer in the field. Matt Montgomery was injured in the field and his bowling missed.

It was all very disappointing, but in closing a word for the marvellous pitch and environment at Repton. Groundsman Andy Butler did a fantastic job and I hope it isn't the last time we see the first team at this lovely, well-supported setting. 

Also worthy of note was the stream. It can't be easy to set one up of this standard on an outground, but apart from a couple of times when the connection went down, it was excellent today. 

Postscript: did anyone see the Head of Cricket there today? When the players and coaches lined up for the minute's silence there was no sign of him, nor was he later evident on the stream.

Surely, after saying it wouldn't conflict  with his Derbyshire role, he wasn't with the Northern Superchargers today, ahead of their game tonight? 

Call me old-fashioned, but where I come from they call that a conflict...

Fair enough, if he WAS there, but it's a question worth posing, I think.