Saturday 27 September 2008

Leicestershire v Derbyshire day 3

Well, that's it.

Day three was the final day of the season and although the game was ours last night, the last two days pretty much encapsulated the season.

On our day we are a match for anyone, but the inconsistency is the problem. Don't get me wrong, I know this was a very young side and the wonder was that we were still in the game after two innings against a more experienced outfit. The fact is that we slipped from 87-0 overnight to 128-5 and although Ross Whiteley supported Tom New in a useful stand of 47 for the seventh wicket, 190 was always a little tight on a wicket that had got easier.

I still think we could challenge for promotion in the Championship next season if we sign another good bowler and a middle order batsman. A full strength side would have won this game but we should not go into the winter too despondent.

There have been pluses and minuses through the year and over the weekend I'll give you my player ratings for the season. We still can't play one day cricket for toffee but I don't think there's a magic wand that can be waved to make us into one. Experience and more particularly experience of winning these games is needed. Maybe we should bring in Dean Jones to give a master class in approaching one day batting and let them all watch videos of Charl bowling. Again, though Langeveldt is the finished article and we need another experienced seamer to bowl with him next year.

Waggy has been superb and Jon Clare has done more than could have been dreamed of pre-season, but the winter recruits will dictate where we go from here.

Ah well, my 300th blog of the year records a loss, not the expected win. Never mind, to bed and perhaps sometime this winter I'll dream about our winning something next season.

Who knows? It might just come true...

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your 300th post. This is an excellent blog. Personally, I'm not sure one high quality batsman is enough, given the number of batting failures this season, but it's certainly a bare minimum, plus a quality pace bowler, to improve our fortunes.

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  2. Cheers for the insights over the season PF. Living 250 miles from Chesterfield, the BBC website and teletext were my only link to DCCC - your posts add flesh to the statistical bones and are much appreciated. Have a good Winter.

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