Friday 19 April 2013

Middlesex v Derbyshire day 3

The great Willie Nelson wrote one of my favourite country songs of the 1960's, Funny How Time Slips Away. Well, almost in the blink of an eye today, we lost a game in which over two and a half days we had more than held our own.

It was a cruel and salutory lesson for us. There was no mischief in the pitch, simply conditions more conducive to swing bowling that we were patently incapable of handling on this occasion. It was a collective bad day at the office that those involved will struggle to replicate if they play together for another ten years.

Let's not get away from the fact that we were up against an attack of some talent. Finn is international class, Murtagh a very good county bowler and Roland-Jones highly rated. Yet we could and should have put up a better fight than was managed, with only Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dan Redfern and Tom Poynton resisting for long after the skipper was dismissed.

Testing, early season pitches notwithstanding, Derbyshire's batting has made an inauspicious start to the summer. As Karl Krikken points out on Cricinfo, we've made two half centuries in a collective 33 innings so far and it isn't good enough. The opinion of the wider cricketing world at this time is that we can't bat an eyelid, which is patently unfair and incorrect. There is enough talent in this side to make runs, but we need people to do that - and fast.

They will be hurting tonight, as Derbyshire fans are, but such things happen at cricket - and to better batting sides than ours. There's some patently unfair comments, some directed at Shivnarine Chanderpaul over on the Forum tonight. One correspondent suggests he should have scored more quickly when wickets were falling. In his defence, when five of his partners lasted seventeen balls between them, he'd have been hard pushed to do so. Given the resistance shown by the lower order thus far, he perhaps hoped that there might be similar support today. By the same token, we cannot rely on them to score the bulk of the runs on a regular basis.

There's lots of talk about changing the order tonight, but the reality is that Wayne Madsen is opening because no one else likes doing so. It is an honourable act by an honourable man,  even though I share the opinion of others that he would be at his best in the middle order.

It is nowhere near as easy as those suggesting that Whiteley should open, or Hughes, or Redfern. Opening the batting is a specialist skill and completely different from batting at five or six. A hard, red, shiny ball coming at you with a prominent seam focuses the mind and requires fast footwork, hand and eye co-ordination. Besides Billy Godleman, the only NATURAL openers on the staff are Ben Slater and Paul Borrington. Playing one of them means dropping a more established player from the middle order and Bozza isn't fully fit after facial surgery, even if that was deemed an option.

Everyone needs to remember, as I've written ad nauseam pre-season, that this is a work in progress. For every day where we are impressed by the efforts of our youngsters, there will be others when they disappoint and frustrate. Whether people like it or not, it is part of a learning curve, part of growing up. How many of you out there have never had a bad day at the office, or in your work? Bet you've not had folks dissecting it in public though...

I'll be honest, a lower middle-order with Ross Whiteley and David Wainwright in it suggests greater permanence when conditions favour bowlers. I think seven is too high for Jonathan Clare and Chesney's forte isn't a track where the ball moves around as it did in this match. Yet we did go with them and Clare bowled very well.

Indeed, when looking for reasons to be cheerful, our seam attack showed that it can take good wickets at this level.  They all bowled well, even if Tony Palladino was more expensive than usual. Mark Turner seems a much improved bowler, Tim Groenewald is always a threat and Clare hits the deck hard and works up good pace.

Give them something to bowl at and results can be different. There's a lot of work to do, but don't get on their backs after one defeat guys.

We're all disappointed tonight, but there's no reason to be daft...

6 comments:

  1. OK.

    60 all out will have a lot of 'told-you-so' pundits guffawing over their port and cream-crackers, as they drag on their Havanas, but I will go out on a limb and state now that Warwickshire and Middesex will finish 1-2 this season.

    In which order I wouldn't like to hazard a guess, but hindsight will prove this was a beast of a start.

    Not an auspicious start, I grant you, but a learning curve, and it's all about finishing 7th or above, and the most vital games are yet to come.

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  2. Really disappointing today. By the look of the scorecard for both our innings it looks like a minefield but reports show it was nothing of the sort. Like you Peakfan I would like Whiteley at 6 and Wainwright at 7 and maybe that could mean Johnson being given a chance with the gloves (possibly harsh on Poynton as he hasn't done too much wrong). I am a bit surprised by Chesney being in the team as he didn't get a look in last year back in the 2nd division so what has changed over the winter I'm not sure?
    As you say there is not much we can change with the batsmen as they are the best we have - we struggled last year so we clearly needed improvement to see much difference this year with the step up. Hopefully with a couple of away games out of the way, against decent bowling attacks, we can get some confidence at home and maybe play with a more positive attitude.
    Here's hoping!!

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  3. Good and fair comments gents. Thank you!

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  4. I don't think it will be too long before we dip in the market again for another batsman. I'm not convinced any of our top order are going to get the runs neccessary to stay in this division. Godleman is unproven in the first division and was hardly prolific at Essex, Madsen had an indifferent season last, Durston a good one day player, and Shiv will shine when the weather gets warmer. Where are the runs going to come from?

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  5. Back from London and reunited with my laptop charger!!!.

    Oh dear what can the matter be?. I did,nt enjoy this game one bit,with the possible exception of the first hour on day 3. There was criticism on day 1 of how slowly we batted. It was partially justified though Middlesex were far from blameless with some very negative bowling. All in all it was a boring day,and I mean ultra boring. I was thinking by day 3 we might have enough to declare.

    Middlesex didn,t bat much better than we did,they just did things a little quicker. Turner bowled well and looks a different bowler to me. Having said that,none of them bowled badly,though I think we should have had them back in the hutch sooner than we did.

    The less said about yesterday,the better. It was difficult to comprehend,especially as there was no reason on the planet for it to happen. The track was playing quite well. In fact it didn,t play too badly from the start. I really thought we were in with a chance of winning this game but we just threw it all away in a few crazy overs.

    I didn,t hang around to see their second innings. I couldn,t face it. I don,t know where we go from here. The only consolation lies in the fact it would be almost impossible to bat as badly as this again.

    The most worrying thing is the effect it may have on confidence. With Notts next in line we somehow have to pick ourselves up and prove as much to ourselves as anyone else,that this game was a fluke. We can still turn the corner but we cannot afford to leave it too long. I would give this team another game before considering any changes. Let,s see if they can bounce back.

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  6. Mark, where will the money come from for another batsman? Who is languishing unwanted in a second team somewhere who would score the runs we need? It's not football mate andthe county game isn't awash with 2nd XI players who will score you runs.
    Got to keep the faith with these guys and let them come good!
    Marc - can't have made for great viewing for sure. As for my changes - see later!

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