Surrey v Derbyshire - Royal London One-Day Cup

Durston’s knock of 129, which he later described as his best one-day knock, wasn’t enough for Derbyshire

Surrey 326-6 (Sangakkara 109, Davies 115); Derbyshire  249 (Durston 129)

Surrey won by 77 runs

We were a little outgunned today.

Two very good batsmen in Steven Davies and Kumar Sangakkara took the game away from us with a brilliant second wicket stand of 204, although an innings of considerable brilliance, even for him, from Wes Durston, kept us in the game for longer than most of us thought likely.

Most of the bowlers won't want to linger on their bowling figures today though Shiv Thakor's nine overs for just 31 on a shirt front were highly impressive. That's what top batsmen with the bit between their teeth will do though just as McCullum did at Birmingham in the T20.

At one point, Surrey looked set for closer to 400 than they did and we pulled it back fairly well. Mark Footitt could have chosen a better day for one of his profligate spells, but a bowler of his pace on a good track and with short boundaries is always likely to travel.

At 153-1 after 23 overs we were in the game, the skipper well-supported by Billy Godleman and by Chesney Hughes, but the quick loss of the latter and Wayne Madsen was a major blow from which we never really recovered. Scott Elstone fought well, but the absence of a form overseas player was a major factor. Fantastic innings by Wes though, one he later said was his best one-day knock.

You can't really say that our 'win one, lose one' manner in this competition is steering us to the next stage, but all we can do is try to win our remaining matches and see where we end up.

Progress at this stage seems unlikely, but three wins could make all the difference and they have to believe they can do it.

A little World Cup form from the returning Tillakaratne Dilshan would do us no harm...