England Women host New Zealand in an IT20 at The Central Co-op County-Ground on Wednesday 20 May (6.30pm).
The Women’s T20 World Cup holders, led by Amelia Kerr, face an England side aiming to make more history in Derby.
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Head of Cricket, Dave Houghton, believes Derbyshire’s decision making with the bat is being affected by a lack of confidence, but he’s urged the squad to take a more positive approach in the remaining Royal London Cup fixtures.
The side fell to an eight-wicket defeat to Warwickshire at The Incora County Ground, despite an 82-run opening partnership between Harry Came (45) and Tom Wood (28), meaning they’re without a win in their opening three Royal London Cup games.
Houghton was frustrated by the way the batsman approached the innings, but believes a lack of confidence within the players is contributing to some poor decision making at the crease.
“It’s a heavy defeat, and probably the worst we’ve played out of the three games,” he told BBC Radio Derby.
“We didn’t get it right with the batting, we left ourselves short and went backwards against their spinners after probably the best start we’ve had. It’s tough to manage at the moment, we’ve been on a losing streak for some time now and it’s hard to keep the guys positive and get them to make the right decisions to win games of cricket.
“We’ve talked after the game, it’s now about coming back on Friday and start taking some positive options and getting the scoreboard to tick over at the right rate. Being 30 short is just as bad as being 60 short, so let’s try to get winning scores.
“The problem I had with watching us today is they had the same field for their spin bowlers all the way through and I didn’t see one sweep shot, didn’t see us trying to hit the ball from off to leg to bring a fielder across, which would have made it easier to score on a rotational basis every ball.
“We were a little worried about getting out and, in the end, we got out. So let’s be bold enough to take a positive approach and get a challenging total. We’ve got a lot to do to win games, let alone win enough games to go through,” he added.
“The biggest thing for us right now is to turn this around, win a game or two and get some confidence, because when you’re on a losing streak, it’s very hard to turn around.”
