Derbyshire 141-7 (Madsen 38, Rutherford 33)
Warwickshire 145-6 (Bell 67)
Warwickshire won by four wickets off the last ball
A super game of cricket at the 3aaa County Ground tonight, one in which there is no real disgrace in defeat.
It was a good toss to win and with scoring runs never easy, Derbyshire never really got going. A struggle through the Powerplay was rebuilt by Wayne Madsen and Hamish Rutherford, but only a late flurry by Shiv Thakor got us to a total that was competitive.
Able to pace their reply, rather than overstretch, the visitors looked to be strolling it at 99-1, but good, disciplined bowling by the Derbyshire attack took the game to the very last ball, four byes in the last over perhaps proving crucial.
I look forward to your comments, especially if you were at the game tonight. For me, the extra seamer in Ben Cotton would have been worthwhile, especially when we bat so deep. instead of Billy Godleman, who I remain to be convinced is a T20 player.
Having said that, the whole attack bowled well and deserve full credit for a battling display with not too many runs to play with.
So near, and yet, so far.
Finally tonight, I am delighted to see John Sadler announced as coach for the remainder of the season.
He fully deserves the chance, will doubtless make a very good fist of things and will allow a proper interview process to be conducted at the end of the season, when we know who is out there and what the options are.
More performances like we have seen in the past two or three weeks and the internal candidate will have a very good shout.
Good effort lads, can't really complain at that one, even if the points didn't come our way.
After a poor powerplay again, and being some way short of a good total, we never had any right to get anywhere near victory. Matt Critchley and Alex Hughes bowled superbly again, the only negative with the ball being Shiv Thakor bowling too short in the power play and leaking early runs which proved vital in the end.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with trying to shoehorn Cotton into the team at the expense of the batting, as the balance of the side is right at present. Alex Hughes is an excellent number 8, and means even with a poor start we still have batting to come. Godleman certainly shouldn't be opening though, and until Durston is fit again I'd rather see either Slater given a chance to open or Elstone brought in to bat around 6 and move everyone up one with an extra bowling option.
I felt the batsmen didn't convert enough 1s into 2s, which with a young team is a concern. Poynton has otherwise kept well, and was unsighted as Clarke attempted a dilscoop. I think the biggest regret will be with Chesney Hughes' bat manufacture, as his bat snapped which led to the ball going straight to mid on as opposed to past or over him. He might have scored a fantastic hundred and we'd have won by 50 runs!
I agree Peakfan- We are a bowler short so Cotton for Godleman and Durston for either Chez or Broom both who played poor shots and gave it away too early.
ReplyDeleteTonight was a night to accumulate on a poor one day track and Derbyshire don't seem to know what a good score is.
For 95% of the match The Bears were in total control but somehow contrived to almost lose it and would have done but for Broom dropping a routine boundary catch and some sloppy keeping by Poynton that cost us 6/7 runs. Small margins but that's two close games we've lost batting first. We kept going in the field and good to see Critchley out bowl the much vaunted Patel.
Sadler, the cheap and easy option again as is always the case with Derbyshire. Good effort last night though, as I thought Warks were going to run away with it. Hope is most definitely there.
ReplyDeleteGood Effort to take it to the last ball
ReplyDelete4 byes and a wide in the last over in the end cost us
Wes for Billy and move on
More positives than negatives to take away from last night, we scrapped until the very end which is something we have not done in previous seasons. The nature of T20 cricket is that your fortunes can change in an instant and we nearly took something from a game in which should have been over before the final ball.
ReplyDeleteThe difference was Ian Bell who on a slow pitch and a target that was slightly under par played a well timed innings and got that 60 which we needed either Hamish or Wayne to get. I think that Shiv is batting too low in this format (and in 50 over and championship cricket), the only way to get him up the order is to make some tough decisions on team selection. Billy will have to miss out and there will have to be some re-jigging of the batting places.
The toss played it's role last night as batting first was always going to be the trickier option given all the rain that has been around all week and that the wicket will have been covered most of the time. No-one was quite sure how the wicket would play and what the par score would be and as I said earlier we were slightly under that. All in all though I left the ground last night confident and proud and I am sure that we shall come out fighting at Headingley tomorrow.
Good comments gents. Mark, so you think he doesnt deserve a crack? He has done all he could while in charge and it allows an informed decision as to his suitability for the role to be made at the end of the season. And also see who is out of contract in different roles and therefore potentially available for a robust interview process.
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