NatWest T20 Blast: Derbyshire outclassed by Alex Lees yet again
The fact that we were playing one of the best sides in the country notwithstanding, Derbyshire produced another anaemic batting display against Yorkshire today.
It all began rather well, with Gareth Cross once again batting in what Derbyshire fans would describe as a Pipe-ian style. We had 46 on the board in the middle of the fifth over, before Cross departed for an invigorating 37, at which point the wheels fell off the innings pretty horridly. By the end of the 13, we had only 81 on the board, and the reality is that 35 from eight overs was nowhere close to good enough. That we had lost seven wickets by that stage was shambolic.
Tom Knight again showed his rich potential as a clean striker of the ball, but we were well and truly beaten by that stage; when he perished on the boundary edge, the innings was all but over. That Marcus North batted until the tenth over for just twenty summed up a batting display, with a couple of honourable exceptions, of considerable ineptitude.
It was a shame because the bowling, until a last expensive over from Mark Turner, was fairly tidy. Greg Cork again did a good job and can be proud of his two 'death' bowling efforts over the weekend, while Marcus North's bowling was diametrically opposed to his batting effort and makes one wonder why he wasn't used in the earlier T20 games.
The reality is that we were playing against a team that is at present far too good for us, and we really only had three or four people who put their hands up to battle when it mattered. It is hard to escape the fact that several members of the side, while obviously good cricketers to be playing at this level, are simply not good enough to take us to where we need to be and want to go.
Thankfully, there are only two games left in this competition, and I'd like to see Graeme Welch use them for valuable match experience for young players. We know what some of the senior players can do in these matches - and more to the point cannot do - so let's see if we can gain any encouragement from the involvement of the likes of Ben Slater and Ben Cotton, to name but two.
The sad reality is that they're unlikely to do any worse than anyone else has done and might just emulate Messrs Cork and Knight in giving grounds for optimism another year.
There was another good crowd to end the successful Chesterfield cricket festival. It's just a shame that they didn't get a better effort from our batsmen to go home happy tonight.
Scores:
Yorkshire 183-4 (Lees 67 not out, Williamson 41, North 2-27)
Derbyshire 124 (Cross 37, Knight 27)
Yorkshire won by 59 runs