County Championship Division I: Derbyshire pack in at 266 against Somerset on first day

Richard Johnson of Derbyshire plays a shot during day one of the LV County Championship Division One match between Derbyshire and Somerset at the County Ground

After losing the toss for the umpty-first time this summer, Wayne Madsen probably got to the end of the first day of this game a reasonably happy man.

266 all out on the first day of an important championship match isn’t a great score, but perhaps more than we expected after losing the toss and being asked to bat. There appears to have been help for the bowlers today and we must hope that it continues tomorrow, ideally with some cloud cover and humidity. With two England men of differing vintage at the crease, we need early inroads tomorrow to keep in this game and hopefully be in a position to push for the win at the end of it all.

The skipper once again batted well, while his batting partner of late, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, had a rare failure. The lower order once again propped us up, as they have so many times in the past couple of summers and the return of Tony Palladino saw the shots of a man who has to be one of the best lower order batsmen on the county circuit. Indeed, ‘Dino’ scores runs so often now that it becomes more of a surprise when he fails than when he gets a few, a sure sign of progress in his game.

Likewise, Richard Johnson continues to show that he intends to hang on to the wicket-keeper’s gloves with another valuable innings and the continued fighting qualities of the side are good to see as a supporter. No one likes to see their team getting beaten, but you can handle it better if you see them going down with a struggle, something we have largely done all summer.

Tomorrow is a big, big day. We could do with an early wicket or two and it was unfortuynate that Ben Slater couldn’t hang on to a chance when Compton mis-hooked Mark Footitt late on.

We will need to catch anything and everything tomorrow. If ever there was a day to hit the heights once more in the field, this is it.

I’ll be back tomorrow night. Normal service should then be resumed over the weekend and next week!