Time for Derbyshire to do some catching up in Championship

Well, yesterday was our best batting performance of the one-day season.

Other than that, there’s not much to say about the ‘game’, where the rain had the final word. It was such a shame, given the work that had gone into the family fun day, but that’s something that can probably be resurrected to better effect later in the season.

It was good to see Ches ‘n’ Shiv opening, but aside from one pull shot for four by the great West Indian (Shiv, I mean), there was little else that happened.

Attention now turns to the Sussex championship match, which is massively important. A win in that one would put us back with the pack, while a defeat would open up a gap between us and another of the sides that I felt before the season might be in the relegation places.

Sussex have made a decent start and the irony is that two of the sides largely expected to be among the front-runners, Somerset and Nottinghamshire, are not that far ahead of us either. Even closer are Surrey, who spent a great deal of money in the close season and had every expectation to be doing better than they currently are.

There’s still time for them to improve, but they have now lost their captain, Graeme Smith and have their own injury issues. Former Derbyshire man Chris Adams will hope for better fortune as the summer progresses or his tenure in charge is likely to come under scrutiny.

As for Derbyshire, better batting and catching will give us a chance of improvement.

A little luck wouldn’t go amiss either. One of these days the skipper is going to call correctly at the toss, which will make a difference, but that’s one of those things that all the practice in the world won’t change.

More tomorrow.