Not much to say about this. More rain, game over. What horrible weather we've had this year. Mind you, however bad its been down there, you should see what we've been getting. I never played a game from the start of August with eight successive matches rained off.
As for Derbyshire, its time to regroup and head off to the next game, a meaningless Pro 40 against Glamorgan in Wales. These things seem utterly silly to me, when two teams play at one ground then head off to the away side's patch for a game in another competition.
So we now have two games to go and are 20 points behind Warwickshire in second place and eleven behnd Northants. We now need to win both our remaining fixtures and realistically pick up maximum bonus points to gain promotion. It could all be rendered meaningless with much more of this rain, of course.
I can't think the Derbyshire side will change much from what took the field here, barring injuries. Langeveldt will almost certainly come in for Hunter but there's no one else unless Needham forces his way in to replace a seamer. The chances are that Smith, Wagg and Redfern will do what spin is required while we pray for seamers wickets.
One assumes that James Pipe wil be back to replace the admirable Tom New. The youngster batted well but dropped a couple of chances that Pipe would probably have taken in his spell here, although that should not detract from a laudable spell with us.
The remaining games offer opportunities for several players to reach landmarks. Chris Rogers is 75 runs behind Stephen Moore as the second highest scorer in the country (he's had three innings less) while Graham Wagg needs three wickets and 74 runs to complete the mini double of 500 runs and 50 wickets, which would be an excellent achievement. Dan Birch, Jon Clare and Greg Smith are all battling to be our second highest scorer and there will be a few who are keeping fingers crossed when the retained list is announced.
I think it will now take something extraordinary for Derbyshire to gain promotion, though third place would still underline what has essentially been a season of progress, certainly in the case of individual players and as a Championship team. We still cannot play one day cricket and run chases essentially falter as soon as Rogers and Hinds are dismissed, but I'm hopeful that this part of our game could improve with the addition of a couple of good players over the winter.
Let's not forget, for a lot of the summer we were only playing ten men.... if you know what I mean.
Peakfan, I have not been able to see much of Derbyshire this season but do you know why Kevin Dean has hardly played? I know Wagg, Langeveldt and Clare have done really well but it seems strange he has played so little, especially as to my knowledge he has not been confined to the treatment table too much like usual!? I hope age has not finally caught up with him and he is given another contract.
ReplyDeleteHi DJ
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know he had a couple of the usual niggles, and he missed a game or two when he became a Dad. Much will depend on who else Morris thinks he can get. I suspect that two from Hunter, White and Dean may go. I'd keep Dean from that lot, but it depends on his fitness, as always.