County Blogs on Cricinfo

There's a new link on the left hand side of the page as you scroll down, which takes you to the home page of the Cricinfo county blogs, written by supporters of the eighteen first-class counties.

Please make a point of checking them out on a regular basis - there's some terrific writing in there and new blogs appear all the time!

Go to http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/blogs/county.html

Second XI update

There's a cracking game of cricket going on down at the County Ground, where the Seconds are playing Northamptonshire.

Following our 269 all out yesterday, Northants were all out for 260 today, with 20-year old James Kettleborough making 145, the next highest score being 25 as the wickets were shared around.

By the close, Billy Godleman (11) and Paul Borrington (33) took us to 50-0 in just ten overs of batting, a lead of 59 runs with two days play remaining.

Sounds like that will be well worth a watch if you're free in the next two days!

Durham v Derbyshire day 2

Ouch. That hurt...

Even optimistic old Peakfan can see no way back from the position we find ourselves in at the end of day two, 348 behind, eight wickets in hand for our opponents, a favourable weather forecast and one of the country's top seamers due back tomorrow to help the Durham cause. To be brutally honest, he is unlikely to be needed on the basis of today's play. We will be chasing over 500 and there's more chance of my winning Miss World than our getting those runs...

It was swinging a bit today, but not enough for our batting to capitulate as it did. When your highest score is 18 and the opposition then rack up 208-2, you have problems. As an Essex fan points out below last night's post, we cannot lose sight of the fact that we over-achieved last season, that we went up too soon and that we should try and remember these positives in adversity. I always try to do that - hey, most of what we do are positives to Essex fans - but I also try to point out where I feel things could be improved from a fan's perspective. It is patently obvious that Karl Krikken has been hamstrung this summer with more injuries than we had last year, by players who look to be short of the very top standard and by chronic (in some cases) loss of form.

As sure as God made little apples we will be back in division two next year and for me the work to make our next campaign an improvement should be starting now. While I fully accept that there may be things that I and other fans are unaware of, most fans have a grasp of the game to some extent and there are two major questions on everyone's lips at the moment.

Why is it that we have three specialist opening batsmen in the club, yet none are in the first team? I fully accept that Billy Godleman had a lengthy run and was found wanting, but Ben Slater should have opened here, if only so we could see how good he is, or isn't. We've read in the last couple of seasons that players should score runs in the seconds and force their way into the side as a consequence. Slater has done that in spades, yet cannot get a game in his preferred position as opener at a time when there's little or no competition. It's odd, to say the least. Is he worth a full-time contract next summer? How do you know, if you don't give him at least the opportunity at a higher level than he will face next year?

Then we pick two wicket-keepers, telling Richard Johnson, who has done a competent job in the middle order, that he is now an opening bat. That's akin to telling Dan Redfern he's the new Curtley Ambrose. I'm sorry, but the move makes no sense, to me or most other supporters.  We've not only lost his middle order contribution, but have gained nothing at the top. Johnson has a good technique, but he's not Sunil Gavaskar, nor does his career average suggest that to be the case.

I'm not and never have been a county cricketer, but I have played at a decent level and coached young players. I know I've said this before, but the occasion demands I do so again - opening the batting is a specialist role that only a handful of players are equipped technically and psychologically to do. Maybe Johnson will score 150 in the second innings, but I don't expect it. He is a good cricketer, but I will be surprised if he makes it as an opening batsman. It's a tough gig and while some don't want to do it, others simply can't, for various reasons.

What happens if he fails? Does he regain the gloves, as he was deemed first choice before this match, or does Tom Poynton get them, if not by default then perhaps not in the way that he would prefer? Poynton is a very good wicket-keeper, but like a few of his team mates has struggled for runs this summer. He is young enough and good enough to come again, but I don't think the move we made in this match has helped either lad especially.

Tony Palladino's injury didn't help the team selection, nor did Ally Evans Scotland duties. I can only assume that Mark Turner is injured, as Jon Clare didn't look fit in the T20s and doesn't seem to be at his peak here. Like a few others, I can't help but think that Burgoyne or Alex Hughes might have offered more in the middle order, even if it meant the skipper moving up to open or Durston doing so, as he's done in the one-dayers.

It's been a mess. I'm sorry to write that, as I have a lot of time for Karl Krikken as a coach and as a man. He is well-qualified, extremely affable, has been a magnificent servant to the club and will hopefully be with us for some considerable time to come. He has had issues with too many players regarding form and fitness this summer and his selectorial role has been like that of a juggler, trying to do so with one hand often tied behind his back.

In this game, however, the juggler's ball has been replaced, presumably through his choice, by a lit candle and we've made mistakes that, as a side, we can ill-afford in our current situation. We all make mistakes in life and the secret is in learning from them. I hope we learn from this one - and quickly.

At least that's my opinion. Over to you....

Radio Derby - help wanted

If you're going to the Trent Bridge test tomorrow, Ed Dawes at Radio Derby would like to hear from you.

Please give him a call today on 01332 375001, as they'd like to talk to someone on tomorrow's breakfast show.

Thanks!

Seconds update

Northamptonshire's bowlers shaded things on the opening day of their four-day Second XI friendly against Derbyshire at Derby.

Their trialist Usman Arif - a 24-year-old seamer who played occasionally last season - took 4-39 as we were dismissed for 269 after winning the toss.

Rob Keogh (2-30) Luke Evans, Gavin Baker, Vikram Sohal and Joe Dawborn snapped up a wicket apiece.  Dawborn, the young Peterborough Town paceman, returned impressive figures of 1-19 from 12 overs with five maidens.

Scott Elstone (82) and Peter Burgoyne (72) provided the bulk of our runs. The former, who had several seasons on Nottinghamshire's books as a middle order batsman who bowls useful off-spin, has been in a rich vein of form for both the Seconds and his club, Dunstall and is making a decent case for a contract. He seems to score runs quickly, which is no mean talent and has also taken his share of wickets. At 23, he has time on his side if Derbyshire or another county offer him an opportunity.
 
Josh Tolley departed before the close but Northamptonshire ended the day of 42-1 with James Kettleborough (17no) and nightwatchman Baker (8no) at the crease.

Durham v Derbyshire day 1

Today could scarcely have gone better for Derbyshire, if I am honest.

We won the toss  - as much a cause for a lap of honour as a win might be on this season's events - then bowled tidily before Mark Footitt completed a classic top and tailing of an innings in taking career-best figures of 6-53.

It once again highlighted the enigma that he is. After receiving serious treatment in the T20, he returned to his best, bowling fast and swinging the ball to be nearly unplayable at times. If he could do that all the time, he could be an international quality bowler, because swing from that angle and at that pace is both difficult to face and very rare. To be fair to the lad, he has consistently taken wickets this summer and has reaped the rewards of a lot of hard work on his core. He is fitter and stronger than he has ever been and both the player and the strength/conditioning team deserve credit for his work this year.

There was good support from Tim Groenewald, while Wes Durston chipped in with two wickets as Durham scraped their way to 253 all out.

It was a decent total but no more than that. Derbyshire must now bat and bat, putting big runs on the board, conscious that the totally barmy regulations allow Graham Onions to return from training with England to take his place in the side before tea on the third day. No doubt the thought of facing one of the county circuit's more deadly operators crossed their mind when a decision was made this morning, but the overcast conditions made bowling a worthwhile course of action. It could well swing tomorrow, of course and we will then see how we handle such conditions.

Ironically, after the discussion around Richard Johnson's elevation the opening berth, he saw it through to the close, whereas the more experienced opener, Chesney Hughes, departed before he got his feet moving. I still feel that it was a muddied decision in playing two wicket-keepers, but Krikken is the man in charge and had his reasons for doing so.

On that subject, I have deleted a post today by a regular  - and usually valued - contributor who shall remain nameless. My reason for doing so was that I felt the comment was overly vitriolic, was a personal attack and included a statement that I felt was unnecessary. It would have been deleted before this evening in normal circumstances, but having been traveling home all day I hadn't seen it before now.

I like to think that the contributors on this site are sensible and will avoid such comment and sincerely hope that the one to which I refer was a one-off aberration. It would be very easy to set things up so that all comments require pre-moderation, but I hope that such intervention is not necessary. We are, after all, adults and should behave accordingly. Please note that I can pre-moderate and delete, but NOT edit comments, so if a sentence is wrong in a long piece I cannot simply remove it.

One of the joys of the site from my perspective is that it enables like-minded Derbyshire supporters to engage in discussion and light-hearted banter. By all means challenge my views and comments, but be ready for my reply! Please do not, however, make personal comments about very loyal and able people at the club - our club. That may be deemed fair game in certain environments and some sites, but certainly not on this one.

If the contributor concerned wishes to mail me and is unsure about what was unacceptable, please feel free to do so at the usual e-mail address.

Durham v Derbyshire preview

In the absence of any news on injuries, I'm a little surprised - nay, make that baffled and disappointed - in the squad for the match against Durham that starts tomorrow.

There's no place for Billy Godleman, which is not a surprise given his form this summer, but nor is there a place for Ben Slater, who would have been most people's choice of batsman to replace him. Slater hasn't pulled up the trees in his first couple of championship matches, but neither has he been afforded the opportunity to open the batting, which is, of course, his preferred position.

I will be frank and say that I don't think we have been fair to the lad. Karl Krikken can only be basing his decision on supposition, as there is simply no way of knowing whether Slater can make a go of the first-class game in any other way. He continues to score heavily in the lower levels as an opener and should have been given the opportunity to cement a first team place, such as that given to Godleman. He's had half a championship season and surely Slater, in the absence of many viable alternatives, deserves a crack?

As it is, the following squad has been named:

Chesney Hughes,
Wayne Madsen,
Shivnarine Chanderpaul,
Dan Redfern,
Wes Durston,
Richard Johnson,
Tom Poynton,
David Wainwright,
Jonathan Clare,
Tony Palladino,
Mark Turner
Tim Groenewald,
Mark Footitt

From this I can only suggest that Johnson will open and that Poynton and a seamer will drop out tomorrow, although the presence of  Tom Poynton in a 13-man squad might mean that Johnson will concentrate on his batting and Poynton keep wicket. If that is the case then I will be even more surprised, as it effectively says that Johnson cannot be trusted to do both, something I don't accept and flies in the face of such worthy duel exponents as Prior, Davies and Read in the current county game.

I know we have injuries and that we are low on numbers of players both fit and in form, but I cannot believe that we couldn't find one who could slot into the middle order, rather than have two keepers in the squad. We will see tomorrow, but unlike most of Krikk's selections I am more than a little surprised by this one.

As for Durham, they are short of Paul Collingwood (injured) and Graeme Onions, who is in the Test squad. They are big losses, as such players would be to any side. Derbyshire should be 'up' after their recent T20 performances and the match offers an opportunity to claim a first championship win.

We will need to bat well, of course, then bowl with greater penetration and discipline than has marked our championship campaign so far. Yet the players are capable, as we well know. Odd squad selection notwithstanding, I think we could do well in this game.

We'll find out tomorrow. Come on lads, make it a good one.

Derbyshire v Nottinghamshire T20 - beaten but not disgraced

Derbyshire's batting let them down tonight at the County Ground.

No team scoring 115 in 20 overs should have genuine expectation of winning the game and the feeling persists that we were 30 runs shy of making this a close finish. When our thus far successful top three all failed, the writing was on the wall and despite a very good 36 from Wayne Madsen, which was brought to a premature end by fine work from Chris Read, the rest of the batting struggled to come to terms with a slow wicket and good bowling.

By the same token, Derbyshire bowled well themselves and there was some excellent fielding. Michael Lumb anchored their innings with a knock that owed a little to skill and a great deal to good fortune. I cannot recall an innings where the batsman miscued so many balls and there were six or seven occasions when it either just cleared or just fell short of fielders. On another day, Lumb could have gone for single figures, but he rode his luck and fair play to him for that. He might consider a trip to the bookies tomorrow morning while it still holds...

David Wainwright bowled very well, Wes Durston equally so, but it was hard to get away from the feeling that we got team selection wrong tonight. When the slow wicket so helps spinners that the skipper felt compelled to turn his arm over for the first time in T20, it is hard not to think that Peter Burgoyne or Tom Knight might have been a better bet than Jon Clare or, especially, Mark Footitt. Neither bowled and while Clare does offer something with the bat, it would be silly to suggest the same from the latter.

Given Knight took four cheap wickets yesterday for the Seconds, he cannot be deemed out of form, while Burgoyne offers something with bat and ball. While Messrs Hughes and Whiteley are still deemed hors de combat, my feeling is that we shot ourselves in the foot to some extent tonight.

Still, three from four is something we would gladly have taken before the tournament and we remain in a very strong position in the group. Another defeat for Durham tonight puts them in a tough position and losing to the Nottinghamshire galacticos is no disgrace. We control our own destiny and there are supposedly big counties in our group who would like to be able to say that right now.

Beaten but not disgraced; bloodied but unbowed. I said last night that I thought we would lose and we did. I also hoped that we would battle and give them a game and we did that too.

Money talks and ultimately it did tonight. Yet Derbyshire have no reason to be ashamed. A little more luck, better application with the bat and lesser opposition could yet see us through to a stage of the competition that would be Quite Fantastic...

In closing, thanks to all those whose company I shared tonight. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all and look forward to the next time and hopefully marking it with a win.

Brief comment on tomorrow

With no team news on tomorrow, my thoughts on the game stand as I aired them last night. I am delighted that we have a sell out crowd for the game and, irrespective of the result, that can only be good news for the club.

I'd love to predict a home win, but I look at the Nottinghamshire batting of Lumb, Hales, Taylor, Hussey, Patel, Read and so on and it is hard to do so. Logic suggests that, no matter how well Derbyshire are playing at present, our visitors are the team to beat in the group and, as the most affluent side with a clutch of international players, will start as favourites.

This is Manchester United travelling to Derby County, if you like your football analogies, but as any football fan will tell you, giant-killing can happen if the bigger team underestimates the opposition.

I don't think our rivals will do that, so I expect them to win The manner in which they do so, however, will be important. If we give it a good go and make them work, fans should be happy with that, before we go on to other matches where there will be a greater expectation of a positive outcome.

For what it is worth, I think our best chance of a win comes in batting second, hoping that Nottinghamshire overreach in going for the unattainable score. If everyone was fit I would make two changes to Monday night, with Alex Hughes in for Jon Clare and Tom Knight for Mark Footitt. We would then hope to 'strangle' the opposition with spin and leave us an attainable run chase.

We'll see soon enough, but with the weather set fair, it is going to be a terrific night for T20 and for the club.

I wish them well and will be there to cheer them on, every step of the way.

Good luck lads!

Derbyshire v Nottinghamshire - the build up

Old Peakfan and his family landed safely in Gods own county this evening and saw a controversy breaking out between the county club and the Derbyshire Society of Hot Cake Manufacturers.

Apparently tickets for Friday's game against our dear neighbours are selling at a rate outstripping the latter's own produce and they are far from happy. Not that the club will worry unduly, as they can look forward to a bumper night of income and a pretty good forecast at this stage.

All that, of course (and I jest, just in case anyone doesn't realise) means that our lads will play on Friday in front of what appears likely to be a sell out crowd and a great occasion. It is well deserved, because whatever the shortcomings of our four-day game this summer, we've played some good one-day cricket and some terrific stuff in the T20. Apart from a bad over from Mark Footitt at Leicester and another one last night, we've bowled with purpose, common sense and great skill so far. In fairness to Footitt, he had Katich first ball last night and that could have given him the boost for the spell, but instead a very good player of fast bowling, brought up on quick bouncy tracks, gave him some stick.

The second over that brought him a wicket at Leicester was less effective last night and I think that he is the one player whose place is under threat for Friday. To some extent, Mark is like the little girl with the curl - when he is good, he is very, very good; when he is bad, he is awful. There's no middle ground and if the radar goes it tends to do so big time. Against his former team, who know him so well, he may be a gamble that is not worth taking and there could be a few options to replace him.

Top of most people's lists would be Alex Hughes, who is nearing fitness and would offer good depth and power to the batting, brilliance in the field and useful overs with the ball. It is to his very great credit that he is a name on most people's lips and notional team sheets after a handful of games and I don't worry about the occasion getting to him at all.

Another option may be Ross Whiteley, who is almost recovered from a side strain. We all know that a fit and in form Whiteley is as big a hitter as anyone and despite a lack of form this summer, slapping a few balls around in T20 might be a good way of restoring lost confidence. You can tell players that their feet, head and hands are in the wrong place as a coach, but sometimes the player just needs to go out and hit it as hard as they can to rediscover what made them good players in the first instance.

Then again, there is both Peter Burgoyne and Tom Knight. I feel that with Groenewald, Morkel and Clare we have enough seamers. Durston and Wainwright are good limited over spinners. Is Redfern good enough to handle Nottinghamshire's much vaunted batting? Is Chesney Hughes able to bowl a few overs? If the answer to both of those questions is no, then we perhaps need another specialist spinner. Burgoyne is perhaps the better all-round option, but Knight has a good track record in T20 and has bowled well recently in the second team before injury.

It  will be a big call for Karl Krikken. Perhaps another question is the fitness of Jon Clare, who didn't bowl a full spell last night and appeared some way from full pace. If he is unfit, then perhaps Whiteley or Hughes may play in his stead, leaving the spinners to fight it out for the other place.

Whatever the decision, these are heady times for the club. By a growing consensus we have perhaps the two biggest names in the tournament as overseas stars and both have done very well. I can write little about Chanderpaul that hasn't already been said and he is a diamond. As for Morkel, his use of the new ball has been key to establishing early control, while his influence on and off the pitch cannot be overestimated. We have not yet seen him unleash the range of shots we know he has, but our Friday opponents will be wary of the damage that he can do once he gets his range.

Yet they will also be aware that Durston and Hughes can inflict damage at the top and the former seems to enjoy their bowling. Madsen is another who plays with great common sense but has the shots to rack up the runs on the right track. Derbyshire bat deep, as Yorkshire found out last week, though we'd prefer not to replicate that batting effort again, thanks very much...

Nottinghamshire will also be wary of Tim Groenewald, who is a cricketer for who I have the greatest respect. Over his time at Derbyshire he has missed precious few matches and he usually uses the new ball well and with great intelligence. He will have a key role on Friday, that's for sure and any repetition of his bowling effort last night will be appreciated by the home support.

I'm not going to suggest that we will hammer Nottinghamshire. I'll not even say that we will beat them. Their batting line-up is international quality and, while the bowling is less convincing, they are a team that cost a lot to put together and logically should win more matches than they lose. I think T20 is their strongest suit, yet they somehow fail to win the competition, year after year.

Friday will be a great game of cricket and I hope that our added experience from Shiv and Albie helps us to compete, put our visitors under pressure and makes a real game of it. If it does, then you never know what can happen. We're on a roll and I hope that it continues for some time yet. Even if we lose, we're still in a very strong position in the group.

If we win...oh boy...

Derbyshire v Lancashire T20

Sublime. Heroic. Incredible. Victorious.

Shiv, by any other name.

When you sign overseas players, you hope, perhaps expect that they will impact on your club and on your team. You also keep your fingers crossed that when they come together, with 52 needed from 5 overs, they will come up with the goods. Tonight Shiv Chanderpaul and Albie Morkel did just that. The latter struggled with his timing - he's not, after all, batted at the County Ground this summer, but he hung in there and produced a couple of trademark blows that helped us to a win with three balls to spare.

If you're young and impressionable, thinking that T20 is all about big shots, I hope you watched tonight's game and realised that there's room for orthodoxy, text book strokes and common sense. Chanderpaul played some outrageous shots - the flip over fine leg for six, the dab to third man for four, the flick played so late past the keeper that he does so often - but he played proper cricket shots too, interspersed with brilliant running that belied his 38 years.

For an older player or supporter such as I, it was the sort of innings that showed how good T20 can be. It doesn't need to be power shots into the stands, good as they are. It anchored a common sense run chase that I have rarely seen from a Derbyshire side. Had we chased 50 from 5 in previous summers we would have fallen 15 short as players went for expansive, unnecessary shots. Eight to win off the last three balls...going to need a hoick sometime soon. Nope. A well timed and placed two, a glorious, leant into cover drive for four and a delightful drive past the bowler for four more. Could Shiv have done it any better? No, I don't think so.

The run chase was stymied by the rain break as you always need a few balls to get back into it, but Durston and Madsen gave good support to Chanderpaul. He could have gone early in his innings when a straight drive only just cleared mid off, but from then on his innings was a delight; a few edges here and there, which was always going to happen on such a track, but a lot of people will have enjoyed that one.

Earlier Morkel and Groenewald did very well with the new ball and had the real powerplay powerhouses, Moore and Croft,  back in the hutch before you could say "and all this in front of Sky cameras too". Some may query why Albie didn't bowl his fourth while Dan Redfern took some stick in the penultimate over, but there was an issue around getting the overs in on time. Katich rode his luck (he should have been given out first ball from Footitt) then caned him a little before being adjudged lbw to Clare, a decision that addressed the imbalance somewhat.

Footitt had a match to forget, with two expensive overs and a dropped catch, before holding a very good one, but such is the nature of the player. Like Lancashire McClenaghan, he got carried away with the pace and bounce and dug it in, rather than getting it in the right place and letting the track take it from there. Smith bowled a canny spell for the red rose boys, but tonight was all about a batting genius from the Caribbean.

By crikey, that fella can bat... that sort of innings should be on the school curriculum. It was THAT educational.

Three from three, two in front of Sky Cameras. Who'd have thunk it eh?

In closing, fair play to Dominic Cork, who has said a lot of very nice, very positive things about the club in the last two games. Indeed, the Sky commentators seem to have been genuinely impressed by our boys, which was a refreshing change. I'm not going to mention the 'QF' words at this stage, as there's a good few more battles to fight, but we're sitting pretty at the moment.

Here's to Friday, which I hope is blessed with hot weather and a large crowd. I will be down for that one with my son and you have no idea how much we are  looking forward to it. Nottinghamshire will be a massive test, but we have a team on a roll right now.

Great stuff guys. A pleasure to watch once again.

T20 thoughts and Lancashire preview

There was a good-sized crowd at Leicester yesterday, which hopefully helped the cash-strapped county come to terms with their loss against Derbyshire (yes, I did enjoy writing that...)

Yet it was far-removed from the IPL and all the better for it. While suited business types will sporadically suggest we need to change things around to make it 'work', we will never recreate the IPL in this country, nor should we wish to. The cultural differences and local rivalries would render any attempt to create a regionalised competition redundant. The thought of watching an East Midlands select made up of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and ourselves take on a Trans-Pennine XI has no appeal whatsoever. I'd sooner take up card making.

In a week's time we will have a better idea of how much improved this Derbyshire side is, though the presence of all-rounders through the order allows us to bat long and offer plenty of options for Wayne Madsen. That was how, with seven down at Headingley on Friday evening we still had batsmen who could take us home. Similarly, three spinners yesterday enabled the skipper to bowl half of the allotted overs with bowlers best suited to the slow track, even though he still had three seamers in the side.

Billy Godleman won't be a regular in this format and, when they're fit, conditions will dictate who replaces him from Ross Whiteley, Alex Hughes and Jon Clare, all-rounders all. There's also Peter Burgoyne and Tom Knight to come in if we end up on a beach somewhere, so we shouldn't find too many wickets that leave us at a disadvantage.

One of those young lads would give us the one thing we appear to lack in the field - a real 'greyhound' with a safe pair of hands for long on. This position has become the new cover point, traditionally the preserve of such luminaries as Bland, Lloyd, Rhodes et al over the years. Now most sides have their fastest player with the best pair of hands out at long on, where the best can save 15-20 runs per innings. They have a lot of ground to cover from the hit back over the bowler's head to the sightscreen, round to cow corner and the work of the best is extraordinary. Australian Steve Smith is one of the world's best, while Kieron Pollard is often seen there. They hold their share of breathtaking catches, but their speed across the turf turns fours (and sometimes sixes) into twos. Such work adds to a player's value in the side, but the best have to be really quick and unafraid to throw themselves around. You don't want your star quick bowler there and wrecking his shoulder, that's for sure.

Canny batsmen going inside out and playing over cover also ensures that a fleet-footed fielder is needed at mid-off too and we're not, at least in yesterday's side, blessed with genuine speed. Good fielders yes, as Chesney Hughes illustrated with a chase around the boundary and full length dive in the Leicestershire innings, (mind that shoulder, Ches). Yet we have few blessed with real pace, perhaps apart from Dan Redfern and the skipper, who needs to be in the ring for obvious reasons. That's why Hughes or Whiteley would be additionally important to the side, over and above any runs they score or wickets they take.

Tuesday sees us host Lancashire and aside from one of the above for Godleman, I don't see any changes in the side. The visitors won at Durham, though like Derbyshire teams of recent vintage have overseas stars in Ashwell Prince and Simon Katich for who T20 isn't a major suit. Prince is playing as a Kolpak, which allows the red rose county to engage Kiwi left-armer Mitchell McClenaghan to spearhead their attack. He's a good bowler and will need watched, while Glen Chapple and Kabir Ali have plenty of experience. There's a few players of age there though, so you wouldn't expect them to be as agile in the field as Leicestershire were yesterday. Stephen Moore often gives them an explosive start and Steven Croft is a quick scorer at three.

They're a dangerous side, but beatable. Yesterday I mentioned the statistics that Albie Morkel has given to the side from his time in the IPL and here's one from Peakfan, based not on extensive research but on forty-odd years of cricket watching.

In any limited overs match, the side that bats, bowls and fields best wins around 99% of matches. Get any one of those disciplines wrong and it can go pear-shaped, while players on the opposition will sometimes be so good that nothing you can do will stop them. But if eleven players produce on a given day and common sense batting is backed by similar bowling and tigerish fielding, you will not go too far wrong.

If Derbyshire maintain yesterday's standards in all three disciplines they will have a decent chance of progressing from the group. If they don't, they won't.

Simple really.

Postscript - No blog from me tomorrow, at least not until late, as it is our son's graduation ceremony. Reckon we will be an even prouder Mr and Mrs P tomorrow. Well done, son!

Leicestershire v Derbyshire T20

Very impressive.

That's my verdict on Derbyshire today, after what in the end was a comfortable win over Leicestershire Foxes. We've now won two away games on the bounce and are top of the group. Be honest, we'll take that...

It was telling to hear how Albie Morkel's experience is being used and Derbyshire's batting today showed a nous that hasn't always been a feature of our one-day game. That 85% of teams who have someone batting through the innings go on to win may be common sense, but when a man who has well over 200 such games under his belt tells you these things, as recounted by David Wainwright, you have to listen. There wasn't much chance for individual success by Albie today and the home side's bowlers did especially well in the last three overs to give him no room to open his arms, but Chesney Hughes and Wes Durston batted beautifully. Hughes looks quicker on his feet than I have seen him and got us off to a flyer with some bruising blows, while Wes took up the mantle once he had been dismissed and continued to accelerate throughout his innings.

Shiv Chanderpaul also batted well and I can recall few players who time the ball as well as the West Indian. Even hitting sixes he seems to put little into it and he really is a joy to watch, whatever the idiosyncracies of his stance.It seemed somewhat incongruous to see a man renowned for his powers of concentration reverse-sweeping Shakib, but was all the more impressive for that.

It seemed a decent score, one that gave us a chance at least, but the way that Josh Cobb led off the home side's reply was breathtaking, even though we all hoped it might not last too long. He took Mark Footitt's first over apart and it was a brave move by Wayne Madsen to give him a second. Few among the club support might have done, yet Footitt took a key wicket with the aid of a very good catch by Billy Godleman. They're never easy when you have to backpedal as he did.

When Joe Burns took up his mantle it seemed scarcely possible that Derbyshire could win, yet the advent of spin stymied the innings. David Wainwright held a blinder to dismiss Shakib, then ran through the middle order with a spell of spin that suggested he is back to his best. He got fine support from Dan Redfern and it was hard to believe that he had only bowled six balls in the competition before today. If this was genuinely indicative of his bowling talent it gives us good competition for places, especially when Alex Hughes and Ross Whiteley return to fitness.

The fielding held up well throughout and it would be hard to fault how Derbyshire fought their way back into the game, then won it in some style. Perhaps the bowling wasn't as on the spot as it might have been at the start, but there's such a fine line between a ball that can be hit and one that is on the spot. It is also hard to bowl at a batsman who is coming hard at you as Cobb did and credit goes to our boys for holding their nerve.

Durston was a good man of the match, though Wainwright ran him close and his catch and wickets turned the game. Nor should a very tidy display by Tom Poynton behind the stumps be overlooked, a focal point of a sharp effort in the field.

Top of the section, though we'll have a better idea of the side's potential after this week's games against Lancashire and Nottinghamshire. You can't argue just now though.

More of the same this week boys. We all enjoyed that one.

PS This was my 2000th post on the blog. Nice to mark it with a win, eh?

Yorkshire v Derbyshire T20

For half of this game, Derbyshire played good T20 cricket as they restricted Yorkshire to 'just' 119 runs in 20 overs.

Then, easing to victory at 56-1 in the ninth over, we managed to slip to 70-7 in the thirteenth in a pretty shambolic effort. Irrespective of the difficulties presented by the wicket, how could we go from coasting it to nearly lost in four overs?

The bowlers did well earlier, with Albie Morkel bowling a particularly good spell, though I'm perhaps as baffled as the rest of you as to why he didn't bowl the last over after three for just nine runs, unless he had a slight niggle. I assume that was it, with Dan Redfern being bowled for the first time at the end of the innings.

It was an all-round professional bowling display, with spinners and seamers alike keeping control on a wicket that seemed far from ideal for T20 cricket - or at least the sort that the marketing men espouse to the potential fan base.

It's a funny game though. Brooks bowled well, but I cannot defend losing six wickets in eighteen balls at any level of the game. I'll confess to preparing this piece for a defeat when we reached 70-7, Morkel's departure seeming to signal the end.

Yet in our time of need, salvation came from an unlikely  - at least in T20 - source. Jon Clare's top T20 score in twenty previous innings was a mere 18, while Tim Groenewald's batting appeared to have gone back a bit this year, his willow less obdurate than in previous summers.

After David Wainwright departed at 92 at the end of the seventeenth, the two combined to add 28 from the next fifteen balls, so diametrically opposed to what had gone before as to be quite extraordinary. Clare extended his personal tournament best to an unbeaten 35, while Groenewald lent valuable support at the other end. It was an impressive knock from Clare, who kept the strike beautifully in the penultimate over and took responsibility in a manner that was good to see.

It was a winning start, but they will need to improve dramatically tomorrow for the TV cameras at Leicester. Tougher challenges await, but at the end of a dramatic match, we took the points.

Be honest, against a county where two of their most famous alumni 'got 'em in singles' in a tight finish, we'll gladly take a barnstorming conclusion after a mid-innings plummet worthy of St Moritz.

All of a sudden, Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards turned into Adam Malysz...

Brief blog...

I shall be brief tonight as I have a very early start tomorrow.

Andrew Bairstow is now available to Yorkshire tomorrow in the following squad:

Gale (c), Bairstow, Ballance, Brooks, Hodd, Hodgson, Lees, Lyth, Plunkett, Pyrah, Rafiq, Rashid, Sayers, Sidebottom, Wardlaw.

It is a decent squad, but no more than that. If we are serious of making an impression on the competition this year we should be beating a Yorkshire side shorn of several big stars.

The Derbyshire side looks likely to be as I suggested last night, though Peter Burgoyne could miss out on a Headingley track that rarely favours spin. There will also be a decision over the wicket-keeping role, with both Poynton and Johnson in the squad.
 

Finally tonight, you may have read that the club has appointed a chaplain, Revd Tim Wright of Boulton St Mary's Church, Alvaston, It is a forward-thinking move and recognises that cricket is a sport where independent support, advice and guidance, even just a friendly ear, can come in useful.

The club should be applauded for this which will doubtless be well utilised. Mind you, when I told my old Dad tonight he cast his mind back to earlier days.

"Time was when we looked like we'd signed Charlie Chaplin" he said, with a trademark chuckle.

You can't beat the old ones. We used to sign them...

Useful workout at Chesterfield

There was a handy run out for Derbyshire's players at Chesterfield tonight as the county side, as expected, eased to victory over the league select put together by Kevin Dean.

There was an unbeaten 74 before retiral from Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a breezy 24 from Albie Morkel and runs from most others in a total of 184, before the bowlers kept their opponents well short at 136 by the end of the twenty overs. I may be wrong but I doubt that Morkel has played in much darker conditions in T20, certainly not for Chennai.

The side was largely as I expected it to be and had suggested in a first choice side last week. With the Yorkshire game at Headingley fast approaching, I think we will go in with close to this side:

Durston
Hughes
Madsen
Chanderpaul
Morkel
Redfern
Johnson
Clare
Wainwright
Burgoyne
Groenewald/Turner

It gives us three seamers and four spinners, as well as lengthy batting. I'd like to see Alex Hughes in there but am unsure if he will be risked in this first game.

Mind you, Yorkshire have their own injury worries. Besides losing Root, Bairstow and Bresnan to England duty, Phil Jaques and Steve Patterson are injured and Jack Brooks is unlikely to be risked, while Iain Wardlaw is with Scotland. With no overseas player, barring a late signing that Jason Gillespie says is 'a remote chance' they look beatable to me.

Of course, both Andrew Gale and Garry Ballance tend to score for fun against us and spinners Rafiq and Rashid will feature, as will veteran Ryan Sidebottom.

It will be a good game, but I am optimistic that Derbyshire can make Morkel think he's back with Chennai Super Kings on Friday night.

Just need Dan Redfern to bat like MS Dhoni and we're laughing...

Midweek musings

There were plenty of mails after last night's blog. Several hadn't realised that Kim Barnett's formative years in Derbyshire colours were so unproductive, but a glance at your Wisdens or the Cricket Archive website will confirm last night's statistics.

The difference being, of course, that Barnett was a callow youth in a good batting side, where Hill, Wright, Wood, Kirsten and Steele gave a sound foundation to most innings and the odd ill-judged flirtation outside off stump could be forgiven. I don't think anyone who watched Barnett in those early seasons would have seen in him perhaps the greatest Derbyshire batsman of his generation and arguably the best ever.

It all happened - although of course his natural talent was a factor - because he was given opportunity by Phil Russell. He promoted him to open the innings, gave him the responsibility of the captaincy and the rest, as they say, is history. He might have made it had he remained in the middle order, but Russell's actions were a stroke of genius, confirming what a very good coach and judge of players he was.

Which is the point I was making about Ben Slater. It would be silly to make a judgement on the lad's worth as a county cricketer without giving him opportunity to bat where he has made his runs at lower levels of the game. We may as well give him a chance in the second half of the season and see how it goes. You just don't know with young players, but you have to give them a go.

The problem for our young players is that they're all trying to come through at the same time and there's only three experienced batsmen alongside them. In any one side we will have three batsmen making their way in the game and it is hard for them, especially on wickets like the one for the latest match. When a world-ranked batsman like Chanderpaul struggles, when high-class openers such as Trescothick and Compton  do so, we cannot realistically expect young lads to come in and smack it around.

Their development will be hindered to some extent by such wickets, though we might win a match or two along the way. The problem may come though, that the seamers will become used to easier pickings at Derby and find themselves exposed when they have to work harder for wickets further afield. Then you will see how good bowlers they are. It was an accusation against Les Jackson that he took most of his wickets on helpful home tracks, one laid to rest when statistics showed he was even more successful away. I'd wager that with him in the attack yesterday, Somerset would not have made three figures...

By the same token, the wicket made at least for a good game of cricket, unlike the track at Trent Bridge for their game that finished today. When you have 500 plays 478 in four, albeit rain-ruined days, it makes for scant entertainment. While batsmen will prefer such tracks for obvious reasons, they're as likely to lure people down to the county game as lunchtime cross-stitch demonstrations.

Tomorrow Derbyshire head to the scenic splendour of Chesterfield to play Kevin Dean's All Star Select From the Finest Players in the Derbyshire Premier League XI, or whatever it is called. It will be a good test and sees a debut for Albie Morkel. I think the Queens Park boundaries are well within his range and hope that he hits his best form early.

Supporters go to T20 to see sixes and fours - as WG Grace once said, "to see me bat, not you bowl". With the greatest respect to the bowlers, T20 without the boundaries is like operatic arias without the high C at the end - somewhat less appealing. We need to ensure that strokes can be played with a degree of confidence to pull in the crowds, but the tracks are slow enough to allow our array of spinners a chance to shine and cramp the opposition style.

Mind you, we look like being without a couple of them for the T20. Chesney Hughes is unlikely to bowl, having not done so all season, while the sight of Tom Knight limping around the County Ground with a protective boot around his lower leg doesn't suggest he will be playing anytime soon. Such protection is usually indicative of minor ligament damage and may see the young left-armer out for a week or two.

If we get many more injuries to our bowlers, we may yet see Mike Hendrick and Bob Swindell return to the side. I'd reckon they're ahead of me in the pecking order...

More tomorrow, with news from Chesterfield.

Derbyshire v Somerset day 4

It is hard to get away from the feeling  that today was when Derbyshire's relegation to division two of the championship became patently obvious to all but the most blinkered.

I'd like to think that I'm one of the more positive among the club's fan base, but I can see no way back at the halfway stage of the championship. We are 25 points adrift of the nearest side, who were county champions last summer, highlighting that this is a tough old league. It's not impossible, but realistically it is unlikely that we will survive in the top tier this time around.

Today was an opportunity. I said last night that Somerset wouldn't have fancied chasing 200 and, having latterly limped to 145-6 and a win, I wasn't too far wide of the mark with that assertion. It is a long time since Derbyshire had three bowlers who each took five in an innings in the same match, but they all finished on the losing side today.

It is easy, as the usual suspects do elsewhere, to cry 'rubbish' and seek - nay, demand - change. But why? How? It wasn't the best of batting displays today, but we must give some credit to a Somerset attack that used the conditions well and fought their side back into a game that seemed to be moving away from them this morning.

For Derbyshire to lose eight wickets for 58 was poor, very poor, but to some extent we were hoist by our own petard. We prepared a result wicket where runs would need to be fought for and earned; wickets by putting the ball in the right areas on a regular basis. Our visitors did both better than we did. We bowled well, but not well enough to win. We batted solidly first time around, but were overwhelmed today.

Should we be surprised? There are four international players in the opposition ranks and some very talented ones besides. Thomas and Kirby are experienced bowlers of talent, Overton one on the way up. We have Chanderpaul of similar stature, whereas the rest are very good, good and ordinary county players. I'll let you decide who fits in which category.

Where do we go from here? We keep battling, of course and hope that miracles do sometimes happen. It is ironic that we collapsed today after suggesting that we were getting to grips with batting at this level. After struggling to take wickets all summer, three players suddenly take five. The wickets will continue to be result tracks, as they need to be and we have to hope that we can come out top on some of them. I'm not hopeful though.

There are three things I will say. Karl Krikken must now give Ben Slater a run at the top of the order, if only to assess if he can potentially forge a career in the first-class ranks. Next year Slater might just be one of our opening batsmen, but he needs matches in this division to benchmark himself against the best. He also needs to open. I'm sure that Krikk hasn't signed Albie Morkel and told him today to bowl slow off-spin and be the team sheet anchor. By the same token he should let Slater do what he does, where he does it best. Some batsmen get nervous waiting to get to the middle and if you're at number six you have a lot of time to wait (though not that much, the way we batted today...) Slats needs to go in as opener and should be afforded a similar run to Billy Godleman, who has to be given a break now.

Similarly, we need to look at some way of allowing the second team County Ground exposure. It's all very well them playing on nice grounds around the county, but it would be a heck of a lot more use to the players if they batted and bowled on the square they would be on if they make the senior team. It would then be less of an ordeal and there would be greater familiarity with the surroundings, all of which would help them settle. Little things, but little things, as we know, mean a lot.

Finally, consider this. A few years ago, a county had a young and talented batsman on its staff. He played age group cricket for his country and made the first team at a rate commensurate with his perceived ability.

His first season saw an encouraging 750 runs scored, with four fifties in 36 knocks. An average of 25 was OK; nothing special, but reasonable for a young player. In his second summer 21 innings saw him average only 17, with a highest score of 69, with just 362 runs. There were a few concerned eyebrows being raised, as the lad continually got out the same way, often nicking to the slip cordon as he played away from his body. "Too flash" said the critics, far too soon for either comfort or decency.

Season three? Not much better. 443 runs in 23 innings, an average of 23, a highest of 67. Three seasons of first-class cricket saw an average of 21 from eighty knocks and while the next produced a maiden century and the average crept just north of 30, another 24 innings saw little else of consequence.

The player had a career record at that point of 2100 runs from 105 innings and an average of 24. That's less than Billy Godleman (3693 runs from 132 innings at 29) Chesney Hughes (2060 runs at 35 from 61 innings) Dan Redfern (3193 runs from 112 innings at 30) and Ross Whiteley (1225 runs at 28 from 50 innings)

Yet his county persisted with him, as we must do with our young players now and from there his career took off. He became one of their greatest-ever players.

His name?

Kim Barnett.

Derbyshire v Somerset day 3

Given the speed at which wickets went down at Derby in the one session of play that was possible today, it may not yet be beyond the realms of possibility that a positive result could come from this truncated, yet thoroughly absorbing match.

86 runs on with eight wickets in hand, tomorrow will be an opportunity for someone to make a name for themselves, after Tony Palladino and Tim Groenewald did just that today. Reading the chairman's tweet this afternoon, they both appear to have earned a bottle of champagne for their efforts, a nice touch from a man who is renowned for such things.

We could do with a Chanderpaul fifty-plus tomorrow and support down the order on a day where Somerset will not fancy anything over 220. With a better forecast, the likelihood is of a full day's play, though whether less cloud makes for easier batting conditions, or it will be equally challenging due to the condition of the wicket is a moot point.

The big decision that will be mulled over by Messrs Krikken and Madsen overnight is the runs v time equation. If they are genuine in their push for a win - and they really have to be - they need to allow time to take ten wickets, but in doing so can leave the door open for a Somerset batting line-up that is highly unpredictable. Several members of that side have either England or Lions experience and in some eyes Derbyshire will still be the underdogs in this game.

By the same token, they haven't played at Derby for a few years and didn't make an especially good fist of their first innings. We will hope to bat until the early afternoon but will base a declaration - if they do well enough to get to that stage - on how the wicket plays. It may soon become evident in the morning that 220 would be more than enough; conversely without cloud cover 250 may be gettable for a visiting side that can bat better than they showed first time around.

It promises to be an excellent day of county cricket on the type of wicket that generally produces such a match. Any day of the week I would take a game where 200 plays 250 or thereabouts, ahead of one where 450 plays 375. It is still possible to get runs, as Kim Barnett used to show a few years back when our wickets were tailored for a strong seam attack, but you have to work at it.

Spare a thought though, as I suggested last night, for opening batsmen. When Barnett used to lead off on such tracks with near to a hundred before lunch, he was an experienced player with plenty of confidence who was used to the bounce and movement. Whichever combination we choose from Godleman, Hughes, Slater and Borrington we have no one with such experience, nor the confidence to play in such a manner. If they can stick around, see the shine off the new ball, take away some of the hardness and make it easier for those down the order they will be doing a job though.

Let's just hope that Somerset's openers don't do that tomorrow. This game is definitely winnable and the men who took the wickets yesterday and today are the ones who can do it, rather than the greater pace of Mark Footitt.

Fingers crossed...

Derbyshire v Somerset day 2

Four wickets for Palladino, two for Groenewald - why, it was just like high summer, 2012 at the County Ground today...

Tony Palladino had a slow start to the season, but has been sorely missed in the past few weeks, especially at Derby, where he has come to know the track so well and has taken plenty of wickets. Four wickets today hopefully made up for those weeks out in some small way and, following on from his crucial innings yesterday, underlined his importance to this Derbyshire side.

He could have had five, of course and I just hope that the dropped slip catch that reprieved Peter Trego doesn't come back to bite us. Trego is a dangerous player and had Somerset closed on 170-7 tonight we could have had a handy first innings lead. We still could, but we will need to get him quickly tomorrow in order to do so, or we could equally easily be looking at a deficit, which in a low scoring game is not part of the plan, unless it is more cunning than anything ever thought up by Baldrick from Blackadder.

It was good to see Tim Groenewald back to his parsimonious best too on a track that seems to have suited him as much as his oft-time sparring partner. He has not had the success of previous summers this year, but has not been alone in that, yet he remains a one hundred per cent cricketer who is fit more often than most and continues to be an asset to the team and also to Wayne Madsen as a senior professional.

It isn't an easy track for batting and when you see England openers having to work at their game, it puts into perspective the challenges faced by the likes of Godleman, Hughes and Slater, openers all and having to work their way into the first-class scene. By the same token, Billy really needs runs tomorrow, or whenever we begin our second innings.

I suspect that the weather may yet take too much from this game for a positive result and it will take something spectacular - in a good and bad way - for that to happen, with more rain forecast for tomorrow ahead of a nice day on Monday.

Yet Derbyshire continue to battle and have fought their way back into the game against a team of reasonable international pedigree. Perhaps we're only now starting to realise that we can handle this level of the game and are capable of competing. Perhaps there was too much cap-doffing at the big boys at the start, too much deference being shown.

In the right conditions, with all personnel present, we can give it one hundred per cent and a good go.

No one can argue with that.