Falcons Foiled

By Gary Watton
July 10 2016

Yet again the Vikings did just enough to sneak home with the narrowest of wins in a Twenty20 event. This is becoming a nice habit, but they cannot expect to prevail all the time in close contests. Having said that, they do seem to be making the transition from gallant losers to a team that does manage to get its nose in front at the chequered flag. There again, Derbyshire are a fairly mediocre outfit, so it would be foolish to measure ourselves after such a flimsy margin against an unspectacular team. In fact, although Yorkshire can now begin to harbour hopes of also squeezing inside the top four, their chances will be diminished by a less than healthy runs rate, with only Hampshire and Worcestershire in possession of an even worse scoring rate - and that tells its own story.

Still it was good to see Kane Williamson become only the second Yorkshire player to record a half century in eight Twenty20 outings. The batting however remains as fragile as ever. The three Ls contributed a pathetic twenty runs between them. Rhodes's bowling was better than his batting, but that ain't saying much, while the big hitting Plunkett needs to be promoted way up the order, instead of appearing far too late in the innings.

Clearly our slow bowlers are our asset and I see no reason why young Carver cannot be included too. There is no law against fielding three specialist spinners, especially when big Liam remains a liability with ball in hand. Two matches against the high-flying Steelbacks still need to be negotiated as well as a fixture at home to Durham, who seem to be competing with Lancashire and ourselves for the fourth qualifying place in the North Group.

If only Lyth batted as well as he fielded and some of our young batsmen actually delivered a substantial knock. Otherwise we will be relying on our bowlers to once more bail us out, with considerable assistance from an obliging opposition that once more folded in the dying overs, just when maximum points were theirs for the taking. May I finish with the following advice to our batsmen. This competition is called the Twenty20 Blast, and the clue is in the word blast!

Twenty20 Blast: Derbyshire Falcons versus YORKSHIRE VIKINGS in Derby; Sunday the tenth of July 2016. Derbyshire Falcons won the toss.

YORKSHIRE VIKINGS: 166 for six (off twenty overs)

Lyth c Critchley b Carter 19 (46-1)

Willey c Madsen b Durston 33 (80-3)

Lees c Hosein b Thakor 0 (48-2)

Williamson b Neesham 65 (149-6)

Leaning lbw b Critchley 1 (91-4)

Rhodes c Madsen b Durston 8 (101-5)

Bresnan not out 24

Plunkett not out 9

Extras: seven

Derbyshire Falcons: 165 for eight (off twenty overs)