There's all of a sudden the possibility that 40% of England's World Cup quarter-final overs will be bowled by Surrey County Cricket Club players after Jade 'Dirtbag' Dernbach got the call from Messrs Flower and Strauss summoning him to England's cause.
I'll avoid all the inevitable guff about him being South African born because A) I'm bored of that debate and B) that fact doesn't bother me. I've seen a lot of Jade over the years and he has improved out of sight from the bowler of 2-3 years ago, there is no question of that in my mind. I was still absolutely staggered at the news mind you!
He's not exactly a youngster, he's 24 (almost 25 in fact) and has been around the county circuit for a good few years now. His record, statistically speaking, isn't spectacular - 148 first class wickets at 32 and 95 List A wickets at 27, but those numbers have been going in the right direction and 2010 was a very good year for him. Up until the start of 2010 I was beginning to worry that a man who had played over a hundred games in various formats for Surrey wasn't stepping up to the next level, and then he did just that. 46 County Championship wickets at 29, which when you bear in mind he was injured when in great form and plays half his games at the Oval isn't bad going. But it wasn't just the numbers, he seemed an altogether more intelligent, rounded bowler than in previous seasons. With Jade you always get 100% committment but last season there was that little bit extra to go with it.
Without having had the speed gun on him regularly its difficult to say definitively how quick he is, but in some of the televised matches he's been into the late 80s and even the low 90s when he's in good rhythm. And that is key to Dernbach, if his rhythm is off he can go for a few - as his economy rate of over 6 from 60 List A games shows.
If he does play, don't expect him to come in and blow England's opposition away but he's quick, likely to get the ball reversing if conditions are right and of course there's the oft-cited back of the hand slower ball to fox the unsuspecting batsman.
I'm obviously delighted that another Surrey man has been recognised like this and he should be rightly very proud of his achievement. However if you'd told me 12 months ago that Jade Dernbach would be (India and South Africa victories permitting) flying to India to join England's World Cup squad, I'd have been very sceptical indeed!
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I know this may seem an odd thing to say - but the team is full of bowlers playing for the bottom clubs in the championship...
How come the bowlers from Notts, Somerset and Yorkshire (Broad aside) aren't getting recognised - or are they all oversease players?
Regardless - well done to Jade - good luck - if you get a game! As a like for like replacement for Shahzad, he is a decent pick.
Afternoon Chappers
Well there's Swann and Bresnan too, Notts and Yorks respectively.
Delighted for Jade, he's given everything for Surrey and I'm glad he's kicked on and been recognised for it!
Hi Josh,
Psyched for the new season! Have you seen the county coaches survey published in this month's Wisden Cricketer? Really interesting reading. Every coach was asked to pick the best Championship bowler and Dernbach topped the list with six votes!
More worryingly Surrey came out on top in the 'Who will win Division Two?' poll. (Brilliantly Chris Adams vote was discarded as he voted for Surrey despite being told you couldn't vote for your own team!)
Well worth a read. Certainly whets the appetite...
Am I alone in thinking that Dernbach might be a better option on Saturday than Tremlett? Hopefully though they'll both play.
Morning Rich,
Absolutely psyched too, I think its because of the constant diet of cricket we've had, but I'm more excited than ever! I haven't seen this month's Wisden but I was having a chat with someone on Twitter who told me the same thing, I was stunned. I've always thought he was a good bowler but I didn't realise he was held in such high regard.
We're top of the betting odds as well. I think the Div 2 title is a bridge too far for such a young team, but you never know!
Hi Tim,
Tremlett didn't look great last match but the pitch was no good for him. At Colombo the quicks have had plenty of success, Malinga and Kulasekara have bags of wickets there, but they have lower arm actions than Trem so you might be right, Dernbach could be a good option. I would love to see Jade play but I think they'll be reluctant to throw him straight in and they might go back to Jimmy - hope I'm wrong though!
One more thing - Andre Nel has been released - not the most surprising news in the world
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ccdiv2-11/content/current/story/507546.html
Yes indeed, sad to see him go because he was a character and did bowl some great spells for us - like Chris Adams said it was never anything less than 100%. But lets be frank, the 'great spells' were too few and far between for a player of his calibre, and there were too many bans, and too many injuries!
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