Essex 257-7 (Westley 102, Critchley 40, Thain 40, Dal 3-33)
Derbyshire 248-9 (Came 97, Andersson 33, Whiteley 32, Bennett 3-32, Jones 3-43)
Essex won by 9 runs
I told her we MIGHT win from there and during a fine opening stand between Harry Came and Martin Andersson it looked like it could happen. Note I said 'might', not 'should'.
She asked me again just after Brooke Guest was bowled by Matt Critchley and my reply was one with which she was familiar.
'A bit Mills and Boon' I told her. She knew what I meant - I knew how it was going to end.
There is a growing familiarity in the Derbyshire decline. Madsen currently looks a player with who time is catching up, while Dal is too high at five. Surely if Naeem is worth playing, he bats at three or four, where he is used to batting?
He did OK today, though his running between the wickets is not good, with more forward and back than an episode of Strictly Come Dancing. There were a couple of fine strokes around long periods where he was becalmed. There is potential but he is a work in progress, understandable at his age. Learning to rotate the strike better will be on his development plan, as he used up too many dot balls, but he got a poor decision to end his stay today.
Came was excellent and you can normally tell within ten minutes if he is in the groove. His feet moved well, the bat came down fast and he deserved a century, before playing across one from Porter. Again though, there was little support after Andersson had gone and that is a massive concern. At 113-0 in 19 overs, a team should breeze 145 more off 31.
Whiteley and Potts steadied the ship for a while, but the Roscoe of old would have won that game, rather than chipping tamely to mid on. When Potts went in the next over, the final paragraphs of the story were nigh writ...the denouement assured.
I was very impressed by Mackenzie Jones, the Scots international, who bowled a fine line and length throughout and was the pick of the home attack. He got three wickets, even if that of Naeem looked to be going down leg side. He looks an excellent talent and is one to keep an eye on.
Again it was clear that we lack a Matt Critchley in the middle order, as we have throughout the white ball summer. A run a ball 40, then a good spell of leg spin is gold dust to any side and for balance, if nothing else, Derbyshire lack such a player. On this showing - and others in this tournament - we seem to lack a few..
Earlier Haydon, Dal and Potts bowled well and despite a fine century by Tom Westley, Essex looked 25-30 short in normal circumstances.
But like all of us, they knew this story. A line up with the current resilience of a balsa wood bat was sadly never going to get there and Essex won by nine runs.
Can we fast track to the red ball now, please?
Our middle order batting in this competition has been shocking. 2 things really worry me; first is that players like Guest & Dal should be at their prime whereas they both look less capable than they were 2-3 years ago, secondly is the losing habit that the team have, this is irrespective of the competition.
ReplyDeleteWe need a major rebuild.
MarkB
I watched some of it. Ross out and it was downhill from there
ReplyDeleteReally, really sub optimal. Again.
Great post Steve
Andy
Just when you think we can't get worse.Arthur out ASAP. Simon
ReplyDeleteDon’t normally call for changes, but I have to say I’m beginning to agree with you. There is little if any tangible progress but we will be promised better next season as it comes up to renewal time, and no doubt we’ll be saying the same things this time next year. Ian
DeleteWe do not have a 'fighting spirit' or a 'winning mentality' in the team. Arthur should resign but will not because he is on big wages.
ReplyDeleteThere is no accountability, Morgan and Duckett are equally responsible for allowing Arrhur to continue on a long contract.
We need to give Wagstaff, Stewart and any other promising young player the chance to perform for the rest of this competition.
At least 7 matches have been lost or drawn from an excellent situation this season and I cant think of one close match that we have won.
Just when you think it can't possibly get any worse it does.
ReplyDeleteIt was at least a bit nearer today. It looked like we "could" win for probably 98 of the 100 overs.
ReplyDeleteBut while the middle order doesn't exist we aren't going to win many matches. Our 5 batsmen at numbers 4-8 in the order now have a collective average of 10.6 after 3 games.
Brooke Guest has scored a few runs - but too slowly. His strike rate is 3.6, which is putting a bit more pressure on the rest.
What has happened to the middle order? I know that Madsen is the only real class act amongst them, but they aren't really as poor as they have appeared in the 3 games. Is it just that the poor form that inflicts all batsmen now and then has got them all at once? Or something deeper? I don't know.
I do know though that when many of the bowlers were having a hard time last year, there was a clamour, on this site and elsewhere, for a change in the coaching team. That doesn't seem to have happened, yet, with the batting coach.
In the championship we are 8/14 matches in and at current rate of progress no one is going to get to 1000 runs.
Should questions be asked about Ben Smith?
Please Mickey Arthur go now. It’s embarrassing to watch. Another competition where it is over for us before it’s even half way through. Shocking!! How can you lose a game from the position we were in…Saying that I should have known we have done it numerous times before this season. Absolute rubbish!!
ReplyDeleteExile here.
ReplyDeleteJust four words to add. “Why Do We Bother?”
The Exile.
Wow, how dismal is this batting unit. You only have to chase at just over 5 an over, but even that is beyond us. I said we'll not win a single game in this comp and you really can't see where one is coming from. Mickey Arthur out please, continual regression isn't acceptable
ReplyDelete3 games,3 losses. Arthur contract extension incoming.
ReplyDeleteMichael.
An absolute embarrassment. Essex had a young team with 3 pathway produced local players today and they seemed to hold their nerve more then our experienced county players.
ReplyDeleteHow many more losses do we need to have for Mickey Arthur to be sacked or resign?
He shows no ambition for the future and only considers short term targets which he hasn’t hit in any season yet. It’s not working so it has to change.
On the positive side, Rory Haydon was excellent with the ball, I also thought Jack Morley bowled well and Harry Came’s innings was superb.
When each game, different individuals perform it shows it’s not the players ability that is the problem, It’s the environment being set by the coach.
Most County coaches would now understand we won’t qualify so would play a younger team with scope for the future and focus on the red ball but not MA. He’ll pick the exact same team and we’ll continue to lose game after game.
1 more loss and we have to play some academy players for development…
Gary
As everyone knows, Derbyshire are a poor white ball team. In 2025 and 2026 to date Derbyshire have won 8 out of 37 white ball games, shocking really.
ReplyDeleteMichael.
There is a members forum on the 9th of August at 10.00 am before the one day game at the county ground. Please turn up up and ask why Mickey Arthur should be allowed to continue as coach. His record at Derbyshire not great. The board must be held to account for extending his contract. Yet again we have snatched a defeat from the jaws of victory.
ReplyDeleteThere doesn't seem to be any questions being asked by those in charge. No accountability, no clear direction, just a load of waffle in the odd interview he does.
ReplyDeleteI honestly can't understand how this is allowed to continue.
A decent bowling and fielding performance today but like you say in another expert summary you kind of know what’s coming next. The worrying thing is in this competition there are a few dead rubbers at the end with only 3 teams from 9 qualifying for the next stage. So we are almost bound to win at least one fairly close game against a team that doesn’t really care much. When that happens MA will inevitably say we now know how to win a tight game and a burden has been lifted when we all know that won’t really be the case. Surely now Whiteley has got to be thanked for his services but told he’s not wanted after this season and left out and marsden too rested until the championship starts if wagstaffe doesn’t play the next few games he never will play and even fringe second team players may as well be given a go now
ReplyDeleteWith five or six overs to go, the commentators on the live stream (who were talkative, to say the least) seemed to think that a Derbyshire victory was nailed on, with Ross Whiteley getting us over the line. No disrespect to Ross, but I wondered how many times they had watched Derbyshire recently, or how much homework they had done, if they really thought it was going to be that much of a walk in the park. It seems that if we can find a way to lose, we will these days.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what we can do. Chappell, Montgomery and Jewell were our best players in 50 overs in 2025 and we weren't good at it then. This is a poor batting side on paper. Making them into a good batting side in practice, is unlikely. Kris
ReplyDeleteThe last minute loss of Matt Montgomery to the cheesy wotsits has been a significant loss given the size of the squad and the injury list and the lack of form by a number of the batters.
ReplyDeleteHaving a middle order with a tendency to collapse and a long tail is not a recipe for success.
I see Nye Donald has not played in either of the Rockets games , so maybe we could get him back, which could help either at the top of the order or play him as a finisher?
Martin
Fair comment about the batting coach. Am I right to say that the year everyone looked like they had improved was when Ian Bell was here? Absolute pipe dream but I’d love him back here as head coach.
ReplyDeleteChris in Shropshire.
I think going into this competition with five batters unavailable (Donald, Montgomery, Reece, Jewell and Basra) was always going to be a challenge with the squad we have.
ReplyDeleteWith hindsight, I think the money spent on bringing in Sufyan was probably misplaced, as another batter was what the squad needed for this competition. That said, no one could have anticipated Reece and Basra also being unavailable, so that’s not anyone’s fault. Then surprise call for Montgomery.
I still believe Hawkins and Wagstaff should both be playing. They would strengthening their the batting line-up because they’re both capable of batting at No. 7 or No. 9 giving the side much better depth.
My XI would be:
1. Came
2. Andersson
3. Guest
4. Naeem
5. Madsen
6. Whitley
7. Wagstaff
8. Dal
9. Hawkins
10. Atkinson
11. Hayden
The reality is that our middle order hasn't delivered, while we bowled really well.
ReplyDeleteOnce agin, we went through another collapse after Came and Andersson got us off to a fantastic start. I'm not blaming Ross Whiteley for the defeat, but I think he needed to go for his shots earlier to avoid us relying on 8, 9, 10, and 11 to get us over the line.
Mal Barlow. Even when we made a great start I strongly e xpected us to do our usual snatching defeat from the jaws of victory I will continue to pay my membership tho not inclined to go to matches Living in Norfolk there are better ways of spending my time !
ReplyDeleteWould we have done any better in this campaign if Montgomery, Donald, Chappell, or others had been available? My answer is no. Why? Because our problems are not, primarily, about individual players.
ReplyDeleteThe root cause is that we lack a collective mentality that is hell bent on winning games. We don't seem to possess it. I don't know why, as we have some talented players, and we put ourselves in winning positions, like the platform Came and Andersson provided yesterday. It's both puzzling and frustrating..
Downthewicket
was an article on here last year about the under 18s and their winning mentality. Clearly a big step up, but the better players I assume were put onto the Academy. Where are our u19 Academy players this year? No 2s friendlies or opportunities for them to prove their potential as far as I can see
DeleteAnother key thing is people mention players we haven’t got playing but all teams( apart from Gloucestershire) have plenty of players missing and Jewell is a choice of the club so shouldn’t really be included. As shown yesterday other clubs often trust inexperienced new players to play key parts in games so inevitably they gain experience and normally improve . With MA new players are only reluctantly played and tend not to be trusted at key moments. We will always have a very small squad if he only uses the same few players and the same ones sit in the second team year after year
ReplyDeleteIt's no good blaming the coach.Their are a lot of experienced players in our team and they just aren't performing.My gripe with Mickey is signing an overseas bowler who basically has hardly bowled for us and we have him for another season.Let's hope his country dont come calling again!
ReplyDeleteSurely if a lot of experienced players aren’t performing it’s up to the coach to replace them with other players
DeleteApropos of nothing, I see the international calendar for 2027 has been released, and no fixtures at Derby, which will negatively affect the club's finances.
ReplyDeleteAlso, link below to interview with Nye Donald. The key takeaways being he has trained on hitting down the ground and his backswing, and also:
"We were trying to chase 220 against Somerset, we got off to a flier, and I hit the last ball of the powerplay out to the man, and people ask why I did that. Well, I'd just hit five sixes over there, and it's my best shot. There are still times when I get it wrong, but it's being brave enough and man enough to understand that, and not walk off saying, 'Well, I'm going to do that every now and again.' That's not good enough."
https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/premiumfeatures/aneurin_donald_t20_firestarter_feel_like_im_right_up_there_with_anyone_in_the_country.html
Downthewicket - I've said it before and it rears it's head again that we are just too 'nice' a club. It all feels a little too comfortable and too reliant on Wayne doing his thing, and that became far too unfair on him, far too long ago.
ReplyDeleteOther teams must rub their hands together when we're next up. I've seen far to many managers who have the talk but once the results don't come, they carry on with the same rhetoric in the hope that it comes right for them.
We are now seeing what happens with that. It's difficult but when one of the world's top coaches comes in, is given years to sort it out, makes changes and it doesn't work, repeatedly, then we have to ask whether the probem 'just' lies with them and their coaching team.
Or, is it cultural? We're simply not tough enough, not prepared to be and seemingly can't get away from the place that we've found ourselves in for pretty much all my supporting life, in making up the numbers and trying hard but never managing to move the dial toward success.
And that change starts at the top. Everything in the club goes from there. Sometimes we need to look deeper than the results. They are an indicator of something else, hidden away beyond match days that might be impacting.
This season has been just another disappointment, bar a few results and moments of performances. Sub optimal but, sadly, as expected.
Andy
Unfortunately we are not good enough. Even taking account of injuries and absentees, there are clear inadequacies and a lack of application in the batting line-up (Andersson, Came and Guest excepted) with regular poor shots giving away wickets. As you say Steve, Dal is too high in the line-up. In addition, Madsen is looking poor, Bin Naeem bats too low and lacks experience and Whiteley is not bringing a lot. Not sure what the solution is as we don’t have many alternatives. However I think Wagstaff and Hawkins must be given the remaining 50 over matches to see what they can do.
ReplyDeleteAs regards Mickey, could it be that there is some type of performance element in his contract that allows it to be cancelled if certain objectives are not achieved? If not, there should have been because we seem to be going backwards.
Adrian, Nice
Chapel Guy
ReplyDeleteMichael above says that in 2025 and 2026 we have won only 8 out of 37 white ball games. This is a shocking statistic. While we may have misgivings about individual players, I feel that Mickey Arthur needs to carry the can and accept responsibility for our repeated failings. Derbyshire supporters always have low expectations of success but under MA's tenure our expectations of any sort of success have evaporated completely.
I am not currently a Member but I should like to know if, at the next Members' Forum, Ryan Duckett can be asked to give reasons for the two year extension to MA's contract and whether we can expect him to remain in charge ad infinitum.
Even though Derbyshire were in a very strong position I knew as do most of us did that Derbyshire would lose.
ReplyDeleteOther teams win some tight games. Derbyshire don't.
As others have said, there is a problem with the culture of the club. Adding a player here or a player there will not cure this problem.
A top down change is required but I suspect the culture of self satisfaction at the top will prevent this happening and we can look forward to more of the same.