Derbyshire’s patient bowling paying off, say experienced duo

Although New Zealander Logan van Beek is capable of rapid spells, Derbyshire’s success this season has been based more around patience, accuracy and containment.

Those disciplines were key in securing victory in a low-scoring match at Leicester last week where Derbyshire fought back after being dismissed cheaply on the first day.

The experience of Ravi Rampaul and Tony Palladino has been key but as skipper Billy Godleman said, there have been contributions from all the bowlers at important moments.

Palladino was outstanding at Leicester, taking five for 29, the 15th occasion he has taken five wickets in an innings for Derbyshire which is the most for the county in the 21st century.

He celebrated his 450th first-class victim in this week’s closely-fought defeat at Durham and acknowledges the importance of the strategy adopted by the bowling unit.

The 35-year-old said: “We’ve had a bit of a plan all season about trying to bowl maidens and be a tough team to score off and it’s worked well for us.”

That view is echoed by Godleman who stressed the importance of patience when conditions favour the fielding side.

“When you are playing on a wicket which is offering something to the bowlers, you can be drawn into feeling you need to take two wickets every over,” he said.

“Therefore the bowlers can go searching for wickets, the ball can go to the boundary and it’s hard to build pressure.

“So we’ve stuck to putting the ball in an area which makes it difficult for the opposition to score and allows us to build pressure.

“Everybody has contributed and our bowlers have different strengths against different types of batsmen, left or right-handers, aggressive players or more defensive ones.

“We have a nice balanced and experienced attack and it’s about trusting our gut feeling on the day, assessing the conditions and using whatever bowlers we feel are appropriate.

“The boys have taken to the style and brand of cricket we are trying to build. It’s tough on the bowlers physically and it can be difficult at times for the batters.

“But everyone wants to play for something that is bigger overall than our personal performances and if we keep playing consistently to the game plan I think we will win more than we don’t.”