Durham 203-8 (Lees 54, Robinson 48, Ackerman 36, Morley 3-35, Aitchison 2-31, Potts 2-34)
Derbyshire 197-8 (Montgomery 74*, Whiteley 45, Parkinson 3-38, Raine 2-32)
Durham won by six runs
None of the bowlers were really collared, with the exception of Ross Whiteley, who went for 27 runs from his only over. He looked rusty and I spent a fair part of the innings wondering why Martin Andersson didn't bowl. Perhaps he has a niggle and they didn't want to risk him, but he would surely have got at least two overs, were he fit.
Jack Morley bowled very well, Nick Potts continued his recent good form and Ben Aitchison bowled as he has all season. We seemed a bowler light, but the batting looked short too. For all his fine century at Lord's, Aitchison is a good number nine but eight is too high for him, as it is for Potts.
What Durham did well was to ride on the back of good knocks from Lees, Ackerman and Robinson. The former got them off to a flyer, while the others kept them ticking over nicely through the middle overs.
In contrast, the Derbyshire batters flickered into life with fine shots, but surrendered their wickets too frequently. They stayed around the required rate for a long time, but were never quite ahead of it sufficiently to take their foot off the gas and just knock it around.
A partnership of 70 in seven overs between Whiteley and Montgomery offered hope, full of fine strokes from both players. But it needed something special, with 37 needed from the last three overs.
Montgomery reached a splendid half century, full of improvisation as well as classical chipped strokes over the off side. He got them to within range and then made his only mistake, in trying a reverse sweep from a free hit when Matthew Potts overstepped. The Durham seamer had a poor match with the ball and in the field, but while the ball was probably there for the drive Montgomery missed with the unorthodox and then couldn't hit the required six from the final ball to make the tie.
Nonetheless, his was an outstanding innings that promised a lot.
For Durham, Ben Raine was as canny as ever, while Callum Parkinson dismissed both Whiteley and Basra after earlier halting the charge of Nye Donald in his first over.
There was a first sighting of Akif, who settled pretty well after only landing in the UK two days ago. His first over wasn't quite there, but afterwards I thought he did pretty well.
At the end of it all, everyone saw a fine game of cricket. As I wrote last night, these matches change on one ball, or one over.
Tonight the Whiteley over, together with Montgomery missing out on a free hit, was the difference between the two sides.
We were competitive & a decent evenings entertainment. The Montgomery & Whiteley overs went for over 60 & we lost too many wickets unnecessarily in our powerplay. Fine margins, but I suspect neither team will be in the final top 2, & getting so close makes it a disappointing evening.
ReplyDeleteMarkB
I agree . Ramp have away match. Overall decision making was our downfall . You have Andersson but bowl Ross , who was good with bar but not with ball. Looks promising we did well when Nye was out early. That didn't happen much last season so good signs. With Ghazanfar , who has hopefully improved his fielding , we could be the dark horse . We should win on Sunday Donald has a great record against Yorks but Jonny Bairstow could be dangerous , especially considering his performance today vs notts . Good to see the women win too . Not liking the new Freddie though. Ethan( with a broken thumb 😢)
ReplyDeleteThe end result slightly flattered Derbyshire but for some casual batting by Durham in the second half of their innings Derbyshire would have been chasing 220-330 and Durham then made the job harder with several dropped catches. I thought the attendance was slightly down with very few children there whether this was because the schools broke up for half term and a lot of families were going away for the week?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it's because too few people have any interest in Derbyshire. It saddens me that I'm prepared to do a 50+ mile round trip and drag my lad with me. Derby may be a football city but it sadly isn't a cricket watching one.
DeleteWhat has changed since the 1990s, where you could pack the ground out for 1 day matches?
DeleteThere was a great photograph taken by Stan Tracey taken from the then players pavilion balcony back in 1990 when Derbyshire won the Sunday League virtually the entire playing field was covered with spectators watching the trophy being presented Stan entitled the photograph “where have all our supporters come from?” I think a blown up copy used to hang in the old supporters shop when Pat Taylor used to run it
DeleteI went to games at Derby in the '90s and there was very rarely a big crowd. I thought it was reasonably well attended last night by our standards but likely the lowest in the country.
DeleteReally enjoyed game and quite like the cut of this new team. The two free hits were literally the difference. As you said Steve, MM's knock was class but his decison to reverse the free hit was horrendous. Less said on Whitelys over the better! Hope we can get an early win and get in the chase.
ReplyDeleteEven though we lost, we put in a good performance. It was good to see Morley and Potts pick up wickets. Montgomery and Whiteley both batted aggressively.
ReplyDeleteDownthewicket
Whiteley shouldn’t bowl but it was a symptom of squad depth , if Andersson plays he bowls from my perspective. Need 6/7 bowling options .Last over was a little muddled 6 4 and 4 dots
ReplyDeleteI must admit to not being particularly interested in t20 and I didn’t watch the match as I was busy watching Nice lose the French Cup final. I agree with you Steve that both the batting and bowling looked short. Our fifth bowler (Montgomery and Whiteley) conceded 63 runs and Potts coming in at number is at least one place too high. It was a valiant chase but the target was too high. A rethink will be necessary for the next game.
ReplyDeleteAdrian
Unless our bowling improves and we restrict sides to 180/190 runs we're not going far again in this tournament. The new guy looked rusty and only Morley came out of it with any credit. Our top order then failed and it was left to Montgomery to push us close, but too much to do at the end. Have to improve Derbyshire!
ReplyDeleteI went last night. Feel we made some fundamental errors with the bowling last night. We got away with Montgomery's first over going for 9 but that should have been it. Whiteley's over was sadly the difference. If Andersson couldn't bowl why not Basra?
ReplyDeleteI guess with Donald you know what you're going to get and I predicted his dismissal as soon as Parkinson lined up to bowl his first ball.
Montgomery batted beautifully but his daft shot off the free hit lost us the chance of rescuing the game.
Bit harsh on MM, who batted brilliantly. Potts, who otherwise had a poor evening, more or less nailed his yorkers in that last over. MM had earlier in the over reversed one through third man, and guessed Potts was going full. It was a valid option, but unfortunately didn't come off. The Whiteley over was the difference, simple as. He nearly redeemed himself with the bat, but couldn't quite go on.
DeleteThe bowling is a concern, teams will be disappointed not to get 200+ against us, and I'm not sure how we prevent it. I've said it before, but we're crying out for a Alex Hughes type player, someone who can often give us 4 steady overs, and can handle a bat.
A game of fine margins. Montgomery bowling the extra over in the power play was unnecessary and Whiteley bowling instead of Andersson a big mistake. Our batsman need to learn to stay and see difficult periods through in T20. It’s about staying in the game. I think Potts has improved tremendously over the winter and was the pick of the bowlers last night for us. It’s a pity Reece isn’t fit to bowl as he would give the side much better balance. A good effort against a decent side. Enjoyed the game. Grant from Telford
ReplyDeleteNick Potts was good. Fair play to him. Bowls well in this format with good variety, would give him a run now.
ReplyDeleteNot a bad performance but MA will need to work out where the fifth bowlers 4 overs are coming from. We're also light on batting low down which can be an issue in tight games when you run out of slogmen. That is perhaps where we miss Chappell at 8.
I'd be tempted to go with the below:
Donald
Bin Naeem
Madsen
Montgomery
Whiteley
Basra
Andersson
Aitchison
Potts
Javed
Morley
Chappell in at 8 when fit.
Would drop Jewell, he's in poor form and you can't pick and carry someone just because they're the overseas player. Give Bin Naeem who looks a hitter a go.
Big call dropping an overseas but they might play both bowlers when Ghazanfar arrives. Naeem or Wagstaff could come in to offer something with the bat, while Wagstaff offers another option with the ball, of course. Though I don't think T20 maybe his game
DeleteI agree Potts impressed last night, mixed up his pace and did well
DeleteI think the issue is the balance of the team. We need batting number 8 who could bowl. It FHP kind of player we need.
ReplyDeleteAgreed Gary. Either Lamb or FHP at Sussex gives a better balance. You miss that from Chappell, Reece, even Dal who hasn't played much in this format
DeleteMany commenters naturally pinpointing Whiteley's costly over but the differential in extras, where Durham were particularly disciplined, was also greater than the margin of defeat.
ReplyDelete