Durham v Derbyshire: The fall of Derbyshire

Today’s game was a bridge too far for an injury and form-ravaged Derbyshire squad, as they went down by 43 runs on the Duckworth Lewis calculation.

To be fair, we were well out of the game after Durham amassed 273-6 in their 40 overs and the early loss of Hughes and Chanderpaul left us needing snookers early in our reply. I was quite amused by the club Tweet this evening, which read “Rain ends Derbyshire’s hopes at Durham”, this at a point where we needed 116 from eight overs….

Unless Chris Grant had done a midnight trip to India and brought back a next four of Gayle, Pollard, de Villiers and Dhoni, we were well and truly screwed, whether the rain came or not. There should be lowered expectations, to be honest, as a side shorn of Durston, Whiteley, Redfern, Clare, Palladino and Groenewald has got to struggle at this level.

Yet there’s some nonsense over on the Forum and again the usual barbs in the direction of Paul Borrington. Just in case some narrow-minded souls haven’t checked the facts, Bozza scored 32 from 42 balls today, by no means a bad rate, while Chanderpaul got 11 from 21, Madsen 10 from 21 and Godleman 0 from 7. There is no substance whatsoever to blaming the lad today. Maybe we could have sneaked a D/L win, with someone suggesting we should have changed the order. But to what? Talented as they are, could you realistically expect Alex Hughes and Peter Burgoyne to hammer it to all parts? Wainwright? Maybe Johnson, but people need to be realistic. In Graham Onions, Durham have one of the best seamers in the country and the back up isn’t bad either.

No side, lacking six key members, could chase that kind of total down. Nor should it be expected that we have a squad that could handle such losses, as we could no more afford it than many other counties. This is a difficult time, but won’t get any better with petty moaning.

Burgoyne turned in a good spell of bowling and there were more wickets for Mark Footitt, but it was a tough game. Alex Hughes experienced the roller coaster of cricket after yesterday’s fine effort, getting some stick against a good batting side with England players past and likely future among them.

Time to regroup. Time for players to keep working and supporters to be realistic. If we get a few players back we will have a better chance, but for now we celebrate individual success and hope that the light at the end of the tunnel gets a little brighter in the coming weeks.