Derbyshire v Glamorgan Metro Bank One Day Cup

Derbyshire 315-5 (Guest 108*, Jewell 84, Madsen 39, Douthwaite 3-66)

Glamorgan 271 (Horton 81, Hassan 61, Hope-Bell 48, Potts 4-39

Derbyshire won by 44 runs

Derbyshire finally got their One-Day Cup campaign up and running today, with a 44-run win over Glamorgan in the scenic splendour of Repton Public School. 

It wasn't always plain sailing against a young and fairly inexperienced visiting eleven and the game perhaps produced as many questions as answers. Only during a fourth wicket stand of 117 in eighteen overs between Caleb Jewell and Brooke Guest did Derbyshire really kick into gear and their final total of 315-5 was not huge on a small ground. It was tribute to some tight bowling and fine fielding by the visitors and largely to two good individual innings.

Jewell batted well on his return to the side and his 84 was a well-compiled knock, if not in his very best form. While we know he wasn't contracted for the competition, the question remains as to why not, when it represented a chance of silverware? And if, as the story went, he 'made himself available' for the game, why didn't that happen earlier? I get it to some extent if the money saved from him not playing is going towards a replacement for Mohammad Abbas in red ball cricket, but a side missing several players with injury, as well as two to the other competition, really needed strengthening.

Brooke Guest was the best bat on show and the most fluent. His unbeaten 108 from just 82 balls steered Derbyshire to a defendable total and contained 5 sixes. The irony in his not being in our Vitality Blast side, supposedly because he can't hit, was not lost on me. He also clearly illustrated the importance of having someone who runs like a gazelle between the wickets, he and Dal putting on 34 in the last three overs with mainly good running, as the death bowlers found the block hole cleverly.

Glamorgan battled hard and Hassan followed a canny spell with a good knock, before being caught on the reverse sweep. Jack Hope-Bell, just 19, played a nice hand of 48 before becoming one of Nick Potts' four victims, while Alex Horton played brilliantly with 81 in 57 balls, before Guest held an edge, again from the bowling of Potts.

I thought Potts was again excellent today and he has become a very handy cricketer in the white ball formats. Andersson also mixed it up well and it will have been a relief for the players to get one in the win column.

It needs to be said, of course, that this was a much-weakened Glamorgan side, but any side can only beat what is in front of them on a given day. The Welsh side can return home with heads high and with pride in the performances of some talented young players. 

As for Derbyshire, there will be a weight off their chests tonight and they return to the Our Co-op County Ground on Sunday,  for the game against Sussex, having got off the mark.

I won't see that one, as I will be driving down for Edwin Smith's funeral on Monday. I will create a page for your comments, as usual, and add my own thoughts when I am able.