Nottinghamshire v Derbyshire Vitality Blast game 6

Nottinghamshire 183-6 (Munsey 53, Haynes 50, Moores 39, Akif 2-31)

Derbyshire 173-9 (Madsen 27, Aitchison 25* Ali 3-25, Pennington 3-29)

Nottinghamshire won by ten runs

Last night I wrote:

It is a game that Derbyshire at their best are capable of winning, as they did last week. At their least focussed they are eminently capable of losing it too, so it depends which side turns up.

We all know what happened, in a game that was given away by some dreadful batting. Yet it started in the field, after Nottinghamshire were asked to bat.

The modern game of cricket is all about 'match ups' and I'm unsure as to how Jack Morley came to be bowling in the Power play to George Munsey. I have watched a lot of the Scottish international in recent years and his strength has always been in sweeping and reverse sweeping.  Jack is a good bowler but was certainly not the right choice to bowl at that time today.

Accordingly, the home side got off to a flyer, but they were pulled back by intelligent bowling from Nick Potts and Akif Javed. Both pitched the ball up well, bowled with fire and crucially, bowled to their fields. Matthew Montgomery also did well on his return to Trent Bridge and eventually got Munsey, who was starved of the strike and lost momentum. Fifty off five overs had only reached 126 by the end of the fourteenth, by which time the returning Morley had nicely pouched Haynes, like Munsey departing soon after reaching a fine fifty. Derbyshire would later wish for someone who reached that landmark.

As he did in the first game between these sides, Moores gave late impetus, aided by Javed, who had previously bowled cleverly and well, opting to bowl short at a batter strong on the pull and hook. He is far weaker on the off side and they should know this and direct the attack accordingly.

Potts eventually got him in the final over, one in which he should have had three wickets to cap an excellent spell of bowling. McCann should have been caught first by Javed, then by Madsen, but both chances were missed as the home side finished on 183-6. Thankfully Linde didn't profit from a poor decision by umpire Russell Warren, who didn't spot Aitchison's hand deflecting a Moores drive onto the stumps at the non-striker's end with the batter well out of his ground.

A target of 184 seemed well within the compass of a Derbyshire side that has been batting well in this tournament, but the loss of the prolific Martin Andersson in the first over was not in the script. Nor was the dreadful shot played by Donald in the third, from a ball that would otherwise have been a wide. We all know what a destructive player the Derbyshire captain is, but I just wish that he would realise that if he stays in, we will usually win. He doesn't need to hit absolutely everything, because no one can. He doesn't need to limit his involvement to the Power play and just keep slogging thereafter. 

Jewell looked good for a while but was another who gave it away with an unnecessary shot in the match situation, as did Montgomery, three balls later. It was horrible, mindless cricket with fully fourteen overs to go. Derbyshire ended the Powerplay with four men back in the pavilion and the chances of a win ebbing away.

Whiteley and Madsen steadied the ship for a while, but the departure of Whiteley at the half way mark, gambling on his power to clear the long on ropes and losing, left a mountain to climb. When Basra also perished on the boundary edge, after a few nice shots but at the end of an over that had already realised eleven, we were doing that climb in free solo mode. Then blindfolded, when Madsen also perished on the boundary with sixty needed from six overs. 

Potts struck a few lusty blows, but I sat watching and thinking back to people like Peter Kirsten and Dean Jones, who didn't need to play the big shots to score quickly. Place the ball, time it, run the twos, the fours and sixes will come. This wasn't a big run chase, but it was conducted with the finesse of the Keystone Cops, with the same predictable result.

Aitchison took it closer than seemed likely by showing greater nous than most, but Nottinghamshire ended up winning by ten runs and deservedly so. The Derbyshire side has batted well this year in The Blast, but this smacked of a bunch of mates going down to the golf range and seeing who could hit it furthest. There was no finesse, no obvious thought process, no clear strategy. Just brute force and ignorance, as my old Dad was fond of saying. You won't win many matches with a top score of 27.

They may yet qualify for the knock out stages, but will need to play considerably better than this in order to do so. 

I hope they have the swear box to hand in the dressing room tonight. After such a batting display, Mickey's input would be both profitable and fully deserved.