By any standards against which you care to judge, this has been a shocking display by Derbyshire. One of the kind that most of us hoped had been consigned to the dump bin of history.
We didn’t bowl very well, but the batting was a shambles. From the point at which we lost a wicket in the only over faced before lunch, through an afternoon of horrific batting, this was heavy going. I have enough going on at the moment, without having to endure watching that, so I decided not to bother and go for a nap.
Godleman faced seven balls in total for a pair, Ali doing only one run better. Madsen perished on a flamboyant drive, Lamb on a rushed hook…it wasn’t good.
I doubt Mickey Arthur will sleep well tonight and he will have some food for thought. As I replied to a comment on yesterday’s play, I didn’t think the wicket as good for batting as our bowling made it appear, but nor was it as bad as our batters made it look when their turn came.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a good Durham attack. Man for man, given the choice, you would swap each of their three main seamers, with their greater experience, into our side. But the body language of the Derbyshire side has worried me in what I have seen here. I didn’t see it last year, but there wasn’t the same level of intensity that we came to enjoy and respect last season. Both the bowlers and batters need to get it together quickly, because the optimism of pre-season is dissipating far too quickly for most tastes.
A bucolic last wicket stand between Luis Reece and Sam Conners showed what was possible, but this has to be the nadir of our season’s fortunes. Whether it is true or not, such displays will only add fuel to the fire of comments that I have seen, suggesting the Head of Cricket is distracted, the players concerned.
It is now down to all of them to prove such assertions incorrect. We need to bat all day tomorrow and hope that the threatened Sunday rain saves us from defeat. I wouldn’t be putting any money on our doing so.
Madsen and Guest resisted for a while, but the former seldom looked comfortable and the end came with an air of inevitability, as he sparred once too often at the hostile Carse, who earlier completed a maiden and excellent century. du Plooy went to a careless shot and lunch tomorrow seems to be the summit of our ambitions. Fair play to Guest, who resisted well, as Reece did earlier, but he too went before the close.
There was no need for some of the knee jerk comments on social media. It is one game and most sides have such a performance in them once a season. These have not suddenly become bad players, but we cannot afford a repetition of this kind of display.
But the highlight of my day, family and dogs aside, was a visit from the district nurse.
Which kind of tells you everything, really.
