A great win for the Seconds today, bowling out Leicestershire to win by a good distance.
I don't yet know the full scores but there were five wickets for Jake Needham.
Very welcome news on both counts!
In addition, 4-8 in six overs by Peter Burgoyne today for England Under-19s.
Well done Peter!
Showing posts with label Jake Needham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jake Needham. Show all posts
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Jake the main man
There’s an interesting comment under yesterday’s post from ‘Needham 4 England’ where he expresses concern over the fact that Jake is the only spinner in the club, something that should have been addressed.
My quick and easy answer to that one is “How?”
If the author of the comment or anyone else can name one English-qualified spinner of talent who was available and we could have signed I might subscribe to the view, but I can’t think of one. David Wainwright at Yorkshire may have been an option, but decided to stay and fight for a place. To be fair, the lad had injury problems last year, partly the result of modifications to his action and is not that much more experienced than Needham.
There were a few early suggestions of Michael Munday from Somerset, but Wes Durston and Steffan Jones would know enough about him to make a decision fairly clear cut. Of course, he may not have wanted to move home, or may have asked for too much money, but if he had genuine talent we were well-placed to make a move.
Lancashire have three left-arm spinners but wanted to keep them all and they all wanted to stay. Apart from that, nothing. The Kolpak route was explored last year, but was costly and Robin Peterson no longer qualified for a visa, having returned to international cricket. The only other Kolpak options would have been Rolof van der Merwe, who spins it very little, or Nikita Miller who has been flattered by some good figures on dirt tracks in the Caribbean. Neither, for me, would have offered value for money nor the requisite returns. Remember, only South Africans and West Indians qualify for Kolpak status and only then if they’ve recently played international cricket. Zimbabwe do too, but its hardly a hotbed of spin wizardry, unless you rate the aging Ray Price, who had a stint at Worcestershire a few years back. Personally, I never forgave him for recording For the Good Times…
Then there’s the overseas role. Of the top spinners in the world game, all but Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka are in the IPL, while he has gone off the boil and has major international commitments this summer anyway.
I can accept criticism of people when it is deserved and will criticise as well in such a situation, but John Morris can no more spirit a spinner from the ether than anyone else can. I’m sure he would love a new Geoff Miller, but such players take time to develop.
Can Jake Needham be that man? We will go some way to finding out this summer. He will be the main man when conditions warrant spin, numero uno. He should play his fair share of one-day cricket too, when I think he’ll do well.
What I’d love to see is Jake bowl us to victory on a final afternoon with men around the bat. It is one thing bowling well to five men out on the ropes and keeping the score down. But there’s a different skillset and mindset in doing the same when you’ve four, maybe five team mates crouched around a batsman.
A spinner knows that if he bowls badly at such times his mates could get hurt and/or he could go for plenty. Only experience helps you to deal with these situations better and gives you the confidence to continue to toss the ball up and enable it to spin. To get the batsman driving and bowl him through the gate, or to get the nick onto the pad from the inside edge. To tempt the batsman down the track, beat him in the flight and let the keeper do the rest. This is what we want and need to see from Jake this year.
He will need plenty of bowling in the Seconds and encouragement to ‘rip’ it. The odd bad ball will be tolerated, as long as there’s enough good ones to test the opposition.
I think Jake has the ability to be our first choice spinner, should he wish, for the next 10-15 years. The coming season will show whether he has the mental toughness for the challenge, but for the sake of Derbyshire cricket I hope that he has.
PS Thanks to Sid for the news of Usman Khawaja's injury, which is a tweaked hamstring. In the annals of injuries sustained by prospective Derbyshire overseas players, that's like being smacked on the face by the beating wing of a butterfly...
My quick and easy answer to that one is “How?”
If the author of the comment or anyone else can name one English-qualified spinner of talent who was available and we could have signed I might subscribe to the view, but I can’t think of one. David Wainwright at Yorkshire may have been an option, but decided to stay and fight for a place. To be fair, the lad had injury problems last year, partly the result of modifications to his action and is not that much more experienced than Needham.
There were a few early suggestions of Michael Munday from Somerset, but Wes Durston and Steffan Jones would know enough about him to make a decision fairly clear cut. Of course, he may not have wanted to move home, or may have asked for too much money, but if he had genuine talent we were well-placed to make a move.
Lancashire have three left-arm spinners but wanted to keep them all and they all wanted to stay. Apart from that, nothing. The Kolpak route was explored last year, but was costly and Robin Peterson no longer qualified for a visa, having returned to international cricket. The only other Kolpak options would have been Rolof van der Merwe, who spins it very little, or Nikita Miller who has been flattered by some good figures on dirt tracks in the Caribbean. Neither, for me, would have offered value for money nor the requisite returns. Remember, only South Africans and West Indians qualify for Kolpak status and only then if they’ve recently played international cricket. Zimbabwe do too, but its hardly a hotbed of spin wizardry, unless you rate the aging Ray Price, who had a stint at Worcestershire a few years back. Personally, I never forgave him for recording For the Good Times…
Then there’s the overseas role. Of the top spinners in the world game, all but Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka are in the IPL, while he has gone off the boil and has major international commitments this summer anyway.
I can accept criticism of people when it is deserved and will criticise as well in such a situation, but John Morris can no more spirit a spinner from the ether than anyone else can. I’m sure he would love a new Geoff Miller, but such players take time to develop.
Can Jake Needham be that man? We will go some way to finding out this summer. He will be the main man when conditions warrant spin, numero uno. He should play his fair share of one-day cricket too, when I think he’ll do well.
What I’d love to see is Jake bowl us to victory on a final afternoon with men around the bat. It is one thing bowling well to five men out on the ropes and keeping the score down. But there’s a different skillset and mindset in doing the same when you’ve four, maybe five team mates crouched around a batsman.
A spinner knows that if he bowls badly at such times his mates could get hurt and/or he could go for plenty. Only experience helps you to deal with these situations better and gives you the confidence to continue to toss the ball up and enable it to spin. To get the batsman driving and bowl him through the gate, or to get the nick onto the pad from the inside edge. To tempt the batsman down the track, beat him in the flight and let the keeper do the rest. This is what we want and need to see from Jake this year.
He will need plenty of bowling in the Seconds and encouragement to ‘rip’ it. The odd bad ball will be tolerated, as long as there’s enough good ones to test the opposition.
I think Jake has the ability to be our first choice spinner, should he wish, for the next 10-15 years. The coming season will show whether he has the mental toughness for the challenge, but for the sake of Derbyshire cricket I hope that he has.
PS Thanks to Sid for the news of Usman Khawaja's injury, which is a tweaked hamstring. In the annals of injuries sustained by prospective Derbyshire overseas players, that's like being smacked on the face by the beating wing of a butterfly...
Friday, 14 January 2011
Something for the weekend
It’s a sure sign that the season is fast approaching when fans start to select their first choice sides for next season, as is happening on IMWT.
It is something I enjoy doing myself, but I’m going to keep my powder dry until I know who our overseas players are for 2011.
There’s a natural assumption that John Morris is going to replace his overseas opening batsman in a like for like swap, but I would think that far from a done deal. Indeed none of the players I see as likelier signings are opening batsmen, which leaves suggesting teams difficult.
If Morris changes things around with a middle-order batsman, an all-rounder, spinner or seamer it will obviously skew any suggested sides. The loss of an opening batsman isn’t a major problem as long as the man coming in makes a good contribution, of course. Chesney Hughes and Paul Borrington can both open alongside Wayne Madsen, while Wes Durston could feasibly do so having enjoyed success in the one-day game. That’s even before we know how Matt Lineker will take to the county game. Why, in his last stint with us, Luke Sutton even opened the batting on occasion – we’re awash with them!
Those first three places in the order will be the key to our season though. Two years ago we were getting to lunch at 95-1 or better, with Rogers, Madsen and Garry Park all enjoying strong seasons. Last year we were all too often 20-2 in no time, with the middle order exposed to the new ball.
These are all crucial berths. While to some extent four to six in the order can be interchangeable, not everyone can bat in the top three with success. Only John Morris knows his plans for these positions, all I can say is that Chesney Hughes has said he enjoys opening and wants to do so, while we never filled number three adequately last season apart from when Chesney batted there. ..
So there’s an issue straight away, though a return to 2009 form for Garry Park would sort number three quite nicely… unless that’s the preferred berth for our new man.
See what I mean?
Similarly there’s a few people selecting Jake Needham in a first choice side, which is laudable as an idea, but I doubt there would be four pitches a season that would justify playing a specialist spinner. Unless Needham returns from his South African winter as the new Hugh Tayfield, my guess is that he will feature in a fair share of one-day games with four-day matches in Wales and (maybe) Northampton.
Given that we’ve signed Mark Turner and Tony Palladino this winter to add to a decent seam line-up, logic suggests our pitches this year should favour seamers, or at least give them a sporting chance. Greg Smith, Wes Durston and Dan Redfern can bowl spin of varying quality if required, even if just to change the pace or hasten a second new ball.
While I would love to see a Derbyshire-reared spinner taking stacks of wickets I would be surprised if pitches this summer were prepared for our current resources in that area. I still think Needham has potential, but spin bowling is a long apprenticeship. Graham Swann had some fallow years at Northampton before he emerged as a top player, but he had batting ability to carry him through. Look around the counties and so too do most of the spinners who play regularly.
I think that to become more than a peripheral figure Needham will need to improve his batting or bowling and probably needs Greg Smith out of the picture. Smith’s versatility, while very useful to the side, is the biggest barrier to his progress and unlike Needham his batting and bowling are probably equally strong suits. I’m not advocating getting rid of Smith, who is a very good cricketer, but we all know his situation and that he may look elsewhere at the end of this season.
Needham may yet have to wait a while longer, but can advance his cause considerably when he has opportunities this season. In between times, he has to bowl well on a regular basis in the Seconds, work at his game and be ready when the chance is there.
It is something I enjoy doing myself, but I’m going to keep my powder dry until I know who our overseas players are for 2011.
There’s a natural assumption that John Morris is going to replace his overseas opening batsman in a like for like swap, but I would think that far from a done deal. Indeed none of the players I see as likelier signings are opening batsmen, which leaves suggesting teams difficult.
If Morris changes things around with a middle-order batsman, an all-rounder, spinner or seamer it will obviously skew any suggested sides. The loss of an opening batsman isn’t a major problem as long as the man coming in makes a good contribution, of course. Chesney Hughes and Paul Borrington can both open alongside Wayne Madsen, while Wes Durston could feasibly do so having enjoyed success in the one-day game. That’s even before we know how Matt Lineker will take to the county game. Why, in his last stint with us, Luke Sutton even opened the batting on occasion – we’re awash with them!
Those first three places in the order will be the key to our season though. Two years ago we were getting to lunch at 95-1 or better, with Rogers, Madsen and Garry Park all enjoying strong seasons. Last year we were all too often 20-2 in no time, with the middle order exposed to the new ball.
These are all crucial berths. While to some extent four to six in the order can be interchangeable, not everyone can bat in the top three with success. Only John Morris knows his plans for these positions, all I can say is that Chesney Hughes has said he enjoys opening and wants to do so, while we never filled number three adequately last season apart from when Chesney batted there. ..
So there’s an issue straight away, though a return to 2009 form for Garry Park would sort number three quite nicely… unless that’s the preferred berth for our new man.
See what I mean?
Similarly there’s a few people selecting Jake Needham in a first choice side, which is laudable as an idea, but I doubt there would be four pitches a season that would justify playing a specialist spinner. Unless Needham returns from his South African winter as the new Hugh Tayfield, my guess is that he will feature in a fair share of one-day games with four-day matches in Wales and (maybe) Northampton.
Given that we’ve signed Mark Turner and Tony Palladino this winter to add to a decent seam line-up, logic suggests our pitches this year should favour seamers, or at least give them a sporting chance. Greg Smith, Wes Durston and Dan Redfern can bowl spin of varying quality if required, even if just to change the pace or hasten a second new ball.
While I would love to see a Derbyshire-reared spinner taking stacks of wickets I would be surprised if pitches this summer were prepared for our current resources in that area. I still think Needham has potential, but spin bowling is a long apprenticeship. Graham Swann had some fallow years at Northampton before he emerged as a top player, but he had batting ability to carry him through. Look around the counties and so too do most of the spinners who play regularly.
I think that to become more than a peripheral figure Needham will need to improve his batting or bowling and probably needs Greg Smith out of the picture. Smith’s versatility, while very useful to the side, is the biggest barrier to his progress and unlike Needham his batting and bowling are probably equally strong suits. I’m not advocating getting rid of Smith, who is a very good cricketer, but we all know his situation and that he may look elsewhere at the end of this season.
Needham may yet have to wait a while longer, but can advance his cause considerably when he has opportunities this season. In between times, he has to bowl well on a regular basis in the Seconds, work at his game and be ready when the chance is there.
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Seconds on top at Worcester
There were five wickets each for Atif Sheikh and Jake Needham as Derbyshire bowled out Worcestershire Seconds for 212 on the first day of the Second XI fixture yesterday. Sheikh followed good bowling against Yorkshire with figures of 5-37 in an impressive display.
In reply, Derbyshire were 157-4 at the close. No news on the scorers, but I'll bring that to you when I can.
In reply, Derbyshire were 157-4 at the close. No news on the scorers, but I'll bring that to you when I can.
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