Arthur on Sussex defeat

Mickey Arthur says learning to play under pressure and will risk is crucial to the development of Derbyshire’s squad, after their LV= County Championship defeat to Sussex. 

Having bowled the hosts out for 337 in the first innings, Derbyshire opted not to enforce the follow-on, with the aim of piling on runs in the final session of Day Three to set up a testing chase.

However, the loss of seven wickets for 127, coupled with rain on the final morning eating into the day, saw Derbyshire declare and set Sussex a target of 342 to win.

Despite the disappointment of the defeat, Arthur says the squad will learn from the experience as they look towards the second half of the season.

“I think one bad session can cost you dearly in first-class cricket, so it was disappointing with the bat yesterday.

“I’ve always said that we will risk a loss to get a win, because that’s how you produce cricketers and a team, that’s how you create a culture. It didn’t work out for us today, but I’m proud of the players and I can’t fault their effort, we’ve played some very good cricket again, but for one bad session.

“The lead was significant, but you want your bowlers to have a rest, a couple of them have niggles so we didn’t want to push them straight back out there. One good session of batting would have given us 85-90 overs at them with more than 380. We didn’t bat well enough and it made the chase shorter than we’d have liked.

The brand of cricket we will continue to play is to win rather than draw.  When I arrived, I said I wanted us to be a team which is hard to beat, we’ve passed that stage now. The next stage in our evolution is to put ourselves under pressure to win games.

“It’s worked well for us so far, if we won today we’d be pushing for second, but we’re in the middle of the table with six games to go and that’s reflective of the cricket we’ve played.

“The attitude and consistency we’ve shown in our white ball cricket is because of the standards we’ve set, and we’re always looking for that victory.”

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