Derbyshire v Sussex: Day 4

The coup de grace was swift and merciful and Sussex put us out of our misery well before lunchtime today. I didn’t expect anything else, to be honest, and the team now needs to regroup and work out how they can improve as a unit.

Karl Krikken is holding a meeting on Monday to discuss how they can turn things around. You cannot fault the effort of the players at all, but the crux of it all is that we need to bat, bowl and field better. Some of these players may now be outside their comfort zone and have ‘maxed out’ as far as their ability goes. That is a painful yet honest truth and good though they are at second division cricket, some may just not be able to make the next step.

Everyone has a level in the game. For some, it is as low as an occasional social match, for others it is senior county leagues, or first-class county second eleven. There is no disgrace in it, but Derbyshire will only become an established top tier side when we have more players who look like they can handle the environment.

For some, it will be a technical issue that prevents that final step, for others a matter of temperament. It could be both, but this level appears to have caught some players by surprise, perhaps in its greater intensity. Notoveryet mentioned yesterday that we’re not winning the marginal sections of the game and it is a valid point. Look how many wickets we lose soon after the resumption of play, as the opposition perhaps ‘switch on’ quicker than we do. There’s also the wickets that fall in clusters, suggesting that the pressure is greater for new batsmen.

The batting needs to be switched around to give those who are really struggling a break, but others need to capitalise when they do get in. A lot of ‘nice’ twenties and thirties have been scored this summer, without the player concerned going on, so greater concentration would appear an area for improvement.

As for the bowling, until this game we have bowled tidily without real penetration. Against Sussex, the ball flew around the park and not even the usually reliable Tim Groenewald could stem the flow. What is noticeable, in comparison to last summer, is the number of runs we give away as extras. There appear to be more no balls and wides, something that could and should be worked on. If we can get back to making batsmen work for their runs, building pressure on them in doing so, we will improve our chances by some margin.

Tony Palladino would have loved the Derby track for the Sussex game. Had he been fit and had David Wainwright been selected, the result could have been closer. Indeed, I doubt Sussex would have fancied chasing 200-250 on a wicket where the bounce was erratic and had we bowled (and batted) with greater discipline, they could well have been doing that.

The catching has also suffered in comparison to last year. This is a tough one, because the players work especially hard on this aspect of the game, but your hands only need to be in the wrong position by an inch for a catch to go down. The work will continue and one assumes that it will, at some point, bear fruit.

These will all be areas for the discussions, I’m sure. We simply need to go back to winning the battle of every ball, every over, every session and build from there.

It’s not all over at this stage, but the fightback has to start sometime soon.