A good day at Derby

Posted by Tony Hutton

Yesterday was the first time I have felt warm in about two weeks. The sun shone for most of the day and I was able to enjoy sipping a pint in the afternoon sunshine. It was much cheaper than John Winn's at Lord's and bought for me by a friend I met anyway !

England Lions were playing Sri Lanka at Derby in the first day of a four day game.
A string of England hopefuls, including Yorkshire's Johnny Bairstow and Ajmal Shahzad, lined up against the tourists in their second game of the tour. Having won well against Middlesex at Uxbridge they are now preparing for the first test at Cardiff next week.

The England selectors and management were here in force, together with a large media presence, including Sky Sports News, and a large collection of professional autograph hunters. I sat with two of these gentlemen from Huddersfield, who had already got signatures from the entire Sri Lanka squad of players and officials, despite having had very little sleep after celebrating Huddersfield Town's great victory in the play-offs the previous night.

I was also joined by Darlo Eddie, yet another professional cricket watcher, from Darlington, who was making his first ever visit to Derby. He travels the north of England in search of cricket always by rail and was busy studying the new timetables which John Winn has already helpfully warned us about, particularly new obstacles in travelling to Chester-le-Street.

Sri Lanka having won the toss surprisingly asked the Lions to bat. The wicket did look somewhat green and a bit of early movement led to the openers Taylor of Leicestershire and Adams of Hampshire taking things carefully. Perera however produced a beauty to demolish Adams' stumps and the Lions were 7-1. This brought in Bopara, something of an enigma at international level, and although the media are all talking him into the Test team he did not impress. He was dropped at slip early on by the usually reliable Jayawardene, before being caught behind for only 17.

Hildreth, the Lions captain from Somerset, who took Yorkshire apart at Taunton last season, played some nice shots and got the scoreboard moving with six fours in a brisk 35, but Taylor, not usually an opener, took time to play himself in.
He is only a small man, but very nimble on his feet and when the spinner, Randiv, came on he launched him into the sightscreen for six.

After lunch (at 80-2) when Morgan joined Taylor the runs began to flow and after a quiet start, the Irishman showed that he is quite capable of playing proper cricket, just as he is with the biff bang of T20. It was a surprise when Taylor was caught behind for 76, but I am sure we will see more of him in the future. Morgan, now partnered by Samit Patel from Notts, continued to prosper.

The Sri Lankan bowling attack with Muralitharan, Vass and now Malinga all gone looked to lack variation and all the seamers made hard work of it. It is difficult to see them bowling an international side out twice (or perhaps even once). The entertainment got better as the day went on and the partnership really prospered after tea when both players went on to centuries and the boundaries came thick and fast.

Geoff Miller, chairman of England's selectors, paraded around the ground where he used to play, escorted by his female ECB minder, and made a guest appearance at a wedding reception being held in a marquee on the ground, before returning to his more serious deliberations.

So a pleasant and entertaining day, with a good raised viewpoint from the new stand which contrasted with the previous ground level view which was the norm here for so long. There are still a good number of modern white seats which one can sit in around the boundary edge and the whole atmosphere was one of relaxation and enjoyment.

All that remained was for me to escort Darlo Eddie back to the railway station by the rather tortuous pedestrian route, which would be very difficult to explain to anyone. He found it quicker than his journey by two buses on arrival. Suffice to say it involves dodging cyclists, taking a footbridge alongside the railway over a six lane highway, down a private road to the Derby Telegraph premises, over another footbridge across the river, through a park and hey presto the railway station appears. The trains all ran on time too !