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Our Season So Far

thewearsider

thewearsider

Midfield
Durham 2024 season is becoming very difficult to analyse. It's a season where wins virtually equate to losses in all 3 formats, where at times we have played brilliant cricket and others where its been really poor.

Inconsistency is clearly a problem.

The 50 over cup was disappointing. .. as although we lost players ... others lost more. McKinney was a plus but having got matters into our hands we blew it against Derby and failure to qualify was poor, from an average group.

We scraped through the 2020 group but chucking the first 2 games meant that it was always going to a tough quarters at best and not many teams would get past Surrey at the Oval. In short if Bedingham played .. we won ... if he didnt ... we lost and whatever the reasons for his strange ommision in those two early shockers, we paid the price. It was looking like another horror show laat night but in an innings that summed up the highs and lows of 2024 we fought back bravely to push them hard.
So we qualified, yes ... but that was about it.

So it falls to the 4 day stuff to define our season, beat Lancs and weve done very well to be safe with 2 to go, draw and we should be okay but may need points off Kent, lose and we are firmly in the soup. Mid table in div one first year would be fine, but lets get there. After being at Taunton last week to watch Jack Leach dismantle our batting for the 3rd time in his career ... we need to be on it next week and put this year to bed. Do so ... and its been okay .... then its onward and upward for 2025 ... where the topic of trophies ... and pressure to win one should return to the agenda .... fingers crossed !
 

thewearsider said:
Durham 2024 season is becoming very difficult to analyse. It's a season where wins virtually equate to losses in all 3 formats, where at times we have played brilliant cricket and others where its been really poor.

Inconsistency is clearly a problem.

The 50 over cup was disappointing. .. as although we lost players ... others lost more. McKinney was a plus but having got matters into our hands we blew it against Derby and failure to qualify was poor, from an average group.

We scraped through the 2020 group but chucking the first 2 games meant that it was always going to a tough quarters at best and not many teams would get past Surrey at the Oval. In short if Bedingham played .. we won ... if he didnt ... we lost and whatever the reasons for his strange ommision in those two early shockers, we paid the price. It was looking like another horror show laat night but in an innings that summed up the highs and lows of 2024 we fought back bravely to push them hard.
So we qualified, yes ... but that was about it.

So it falls to the 4 day stuff to define our season, beat Lancs and weve done very well to be safe with 2 to go, draw and we should be okay but may need points off Kent, lose and we are firmly in the soup. Mid table in div one first year would be fine, but lets get there. After being at Taunton last week to watch Jack Leach dismantle our batting for the 3rd time in his career ... we need to be on it next week and put this year to bed. Do so ... and its been okay .... then its onward and upward for 2025 ... where the topic of trophies ... and pressure to win one should return to the agenda .... fingers crossed !
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What pressure one day stuff is development cup,t20 we have always been poor at and longer format we are miles away from Surrey.
 
The one day cup is one of only 3 trophies you can win and seeing how Glamorgan celebrated when they beat us .. its one we should try to win .
The fact that weve always been crap at 2020 is not a reason to continue being crap at it ... and whilst Surrey are the top side we should be pushing to bridge the gap and eventually challenge.
If theres no pressure on thc coaches to deliver then they neednt be here.This season could be olay, as I said, but we have to keep improving.
 
If I had to sum up the whole campaign so far I’d go with slight disappointment. We were touted as perhaps dark horses for the title back in March so for us to be below Worcestershire going into the final few games and with relegation a possibility I have to say it’s not been good enough. There have been some good wins but also some really poor losses. Lancashire and Worcestershire stand out.

Hopefully we can stay up and really kick on next year. I doubt the likes of Emilio Gay would have signed with the club if he thought we’d be playing in Div 2 in 2025.
 
T20 - Better than last year although we don't really play a great brand of T20 cricket, it feels like we put all our eggs into one basket and hope our spinners can keep the opposition to 140 and if they have an off day we look a bit clueless, especially when trying to set a total.

One day - Again better than last years very low bar but exactly great. Senior players were in the main poor with some useful performances from youngsters, mainly McKinney and Minto. However majority of the younger squad members such as Bushnell, Gibson, Killeen etc didn't take their chance and don't appear to show any improvement.

Red ball - Currently in a relegation battle so there's a chance we could be back in Div.2 next year., therefore we can't call it a success. Bowling has been poor which is shown as we've took the least amount of bowling bonus points in the whole division. Spin is a big concern with Parkinson who is averaging above 50 which simply isn't good enough, especially as we have 4 rounds with the Kookaburra which is when you want your spinner to step up.
 
I'll be honest and say I've known worse seasons (1996, 2002 and 2004 spring to mind) but I don't recall a more frustrating one (2016 aside). The weather has been shite, our bowling with a few honourable exceptions has been underwhelming and a lot of our batsmen have struggled to step up to the standard of Div 1. We've had great performances( Notts at home, Worcs away) we've had dead games (Essex home and away, Warwickshire away, Hants away) a washed out game (I still can't believe we couldn't play on the 4th day) a game over in 5 sessions, a game where we made a Lancs pie thrower look world class, a game where we froze yet again when faced with Jack Leach, we've lost out best batsman to a meaningless competition, we've had to put up with some of the most wretched umpiring I've seen in my life, we've had injuries to our overseas players that border on a curse, I think Ive seen even James Boiling spin the ball more than Parkinson does, and finally we've witnessed one of the most appalling decisions for years in preparing a green top against a Worcs side utterly depleted in their bowling - a result which may well see us pay the price of relegation.

As for the T20 I still maintain that we only scraped into the QFs as there were incredibly 5 teams in the woeful North Group who were even poorer than us and the One Day Cup was once again dreadful.

I cant comment on the 2nds this season as due to the minimal amount of games they actually playeither being rained off, being played at the same time as the First XI home games or, rather alarmingly, a seemingly reluctance to want to play under blue skies by the umpires, I have seen one day at Darlo (arguably the most enjoyable day I have spent) and one afternoon session at Burnopfield in June)

Sorry for the negativity - hopefully we'll get enough points to stave off relegation and my mood may lighten.
 
The Red Telephone said:
As for the T20 I still maintain that we only scraped into the QFs as there were incredibly 5 teams in the woeful North Group who were even poorer than us and the One Day Cup was once again dreadful
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T20 has been on the decline since I started going full time in 2016. @brandon mentioned it a while ago but crowd sides have dwindled, atmosphere at the ground is shite (£6 a pint and nothing for kids to do) plus that clown on the mic does my head in.

Overall the club just isn’t focusing on what brings people and money in. This has been the worst season I’ve ever sat through since I started going in 2016
GordonMuchallNo1Fan said:
T20 - On paper progress
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Still could’ve been better if we didn’t bowl pies and bat like there’s a hot steak and ale pie sitting on the counter in the changing room
 
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