Review: Derbyshire vs Sussex, Day 1

Chesney Hughes in action .

In the old days of newspaper publishing, it was said that the editors of the Derby Evening Telegraph kept a piece of text in permanent typeface, reading “The going was slow at the County Ground today”.

Those were the days of attritional cricket, the ‘no fours before lunch’ of Roses match legend. Yet, if I were to fast forward to the computer age and leave my laptop on from day to day, I could equally easily – at least so far this season – copy and paste from blog piece to blog piece something along the lines of “the Derbyshire batsmen struggled to come to terms with the conditions”.

Yet, during the afternoon we looked to be doing rather well. At 113-2 we were even looking at the promised land of a decent first innings score. Godleman and Hughes set off at a fair lick, yet both perished by the sword as they had lived by it. Chesney has some time on his side after his Headingley heroics, but Godleman will be all too aware of the form being shown by Ben Slater and will realise that nice twenties are of no real consequence at this level.

Indeed, I’m more forgiving of a player who gets out early, before eyes, hands and feet are as one, than someone who gets out at that stage, when often only something special from a bowler or over ambition from a batsman should be the issue on a decent track.

Thus Chanderpaul cannot escape criticism on this occasion. I am sure that he had big plans for his 300th first-class innings, but reports suggest he never really settled today. No one will be more aware than him that more is needed for someone in the overseas role that is of paramount importance to a young side. It was most unlike him to give it away to a tame catch to the only man in front of square on the off side. I just hope that the weight of expectation isn’t weighing too heavily on his shoulders, though years in the West Indies side should have helped him with that one.

Top marks again to Wayne Madsen, who showed once more that he is a very fine player. Indeed, a lesser one might have struggled to touch the lifter that got him near the end of the day, and the quick loss of debutant Ally Evans gave the scorecard a look that was not especially good for Derbyshire eyes.

We missed the injured Wes Durston today, but as I’ve said before, let’s judge this effort when it finishes and when Sussex have batted. There’s always something in the track at Derby, and with four seamers selected, we have a chance of success, especially when Messrs Footitt and Evans have points to prove.

Big day tomorrow. I’d love to see Ross Whiteley get some runs and there’s enough batting in the lower order to get us up to 250.

Where it goes from there, time will tell.