Sussex v Derbyshire: day 2

We were kept in the game today by two innings. One, from captain Wayne Madsen, was the type of knock that we have come to expect from him over recent seasons, while the other, from Peter Burgoyne, was a sign of things to come from a youngster with the brightest of futures.

One can only have the utmost respect for the skipper and the way that he has risen to the challenge of this level more than any of his team mates and maintained form despite numerous trials and tribulations for his team along the way. Today’s innings leaves him only 111 runs short of his thousand for the summer, compiled currently at the very respectable average of 48. He looks and is a class act and continues to play a crucial role in the side.

The rest of the batsmen largely got starts but were dismissed before making something special of their innings, until Peter Burgoyne came in and hit a fine unbeaten 62 in only his third first class innings for the county. I think that Burgoyne and Alex Hughes will be the heartbeat of our middle order, either at 5/6 or 6/7 for some time to come and their all round talents will afford balance to the side.

It was a day when Shiv Chanderpaul at his best would have been an asset but he went in single figures and will probably be disappointed with his current average of 42, good by many standards but not by the lofty ones that he has set. Both he and we will hope for a big finish to the season, especially as he is some 300 runs in the skipper’s slipstream in the scoring stakes.

There was time for a quick wicket in the Sussex second innings for the admirable Mr Groenewald, but much work remains to be done if we are to get anything from this game, whether a win or a draw. The sterling efforts of the above named players should not distract us from the fact that the next highest score, besides 37 extras, was the 16 of Ben Slater.

A decent day then, but much still to be done in this one.