Played four, won two lost two. I'd have settled for that pre-tournament, but Derbyshire will need to be on their mettle tomorrow to get anything from the game against Durham.
The northernmost county have had an awkward start to the season with a number of injuries, primarily to bowlers, but they have a strong squad assembled for the T20 and I would see them as one of the favourites.
With Blackwell, Mustard, Benkenstein, Taylor and Morkel, besides England skipper Paul Collingwood, they have a long and powerful batting line up and we will need to bowl much better, especially in the early innings, if we're to get anything tomorrow.
Of course, we should (pretty please) have Charl Langeveldt back tomorrow, which should make a difference. Whether we drop a batsman to accommodate him I couldn't say, but I'd leave out Wayne Madsen as the only change from Friday night. I know Steffan Jones got serious stick at Trent Bridge, but he's been our best seamer in the T20 and had bowled beautifully in the previous matches.
His figures in Nottingham will have disappointed him. It must be doubly difficult to be the coach, showing the others what to do, when you're getting carted yourself. It doesn't happen often to Steff, so I'm hoping he'll bounce back in fine style.
My money is on a pitch less conducive to stroke play, so the Derby crowd may again be starved of Bosman hitting. As long as it stops their big guns doing the same I'll not complain too much.
Elsewhere it is good to read in this morning's Telegraph that Wes Durston is keen on a Derbyshire deal. trust me Wes, not half as much as we are to see you put pen to paper for the next couple of seasons. By any standardsm that was an astonishing knock on Friday and Durston must be causing a few red faces down Taunton way.
I hope he repeats it tomorrow, but expect a lower scoring game. My forecast - sadly - is a defeat, but I hope that I'm wrong. I just feel they have too many big guns for us at this stage.
Hi Peakfan,
ReplyDeleteI hope the groundstaff continue to produce slower pitches, because I think they allow for better T20 cricket.
On Friday night at Trent Bridge the result was almost inevitable when they were 45 from 3 overs. The track clearly had nothing for either sides bowlers.
I've been living in Cardiff for a couple of years now, and going to Sophia Gardens whenever possible. The T20 pitches there always offer a little to the bowler (especially the spinners). As a result the scores are commonly between 120 and 150 and the games regularly go down to the wire.
For me this is what we should be doing at Derby, and across the country, I'm sure it'll lead to much more exciting cricket.