Day 2 into 3

Well after losing Day 1 what is in store for this game? Losing the toss and being put in was expected I suppose. Derbyshire are not strong and needed to make the best of early conditions with the ball.

Our batting is not seen as strong so they probably fancied their chances Our batting? Interesting... Peter Bowler (solid, experienced, dependable) and Francis (young gun, explosive, attacking) as the opening pair. Neil Edwards is looked at as our number 3 possibly alternating with Wood?. Jamie Cox at number 4 is the perfect choice at his clean glorious best. Burnsey is established at 5 because he WAS the dependable one last year and Matt Wood looks relaxed at 6,although he may not stay there!

Day 2 saw our 'fragile' top order develop a base that was rare last season. A very mature 127 from Bowler was the backbone with Francis showing promise and Edwards adding 14. Cox started but didn't finish with 35 and Mike Burns weighed in with 68. A 300 plus day with a Wood 56 meant that we went into Day 3 at 364 for 5.

Burns seems to have said "belt it for an hour" overnight but it didn't quite work out that way. All out for 388 with Wood passing 60, Laraman not adding to his 20 and the rest adding not a lot (Rob Turner came in at number 8). Derbyshire were in early and scoring quite well although Nixon looked hostile and Johnson bowled 6 maidens in his first 10.

It was Laraman who made in-roads and took wickets. His 4 were added to by McLean, Caddick, and Edwards. Just after tea it's 232 for 7 but Adnan is on 80 and batting is looking easy. Adnan continued to push it and passed his hundred before his boss - our ex-second string wicky - brought them off in a fighting declaration at 175 for 8 - 113 behind.  What little chats have been had between Burnsy and Mr Sutton I wonder?

Francis and Bowler went out to get through 12 overs before the end of play and..... we didn't lose a wicket (bodes for a decent season if you ask me!!).  We finished on 24 without loss and tomorrow is set up for a bit of a one day, all or nothing kind of match.

We think 'George' might have done something along the lines of "we'll leave ya 60/50 overs to get what we can score in the early part of the day"  so it could be 55 overs with 300-ish on the board tomorrow afternoon and a bunch of bowlers looking to get them out while not going for 5 an over.  Let's hope the weather and the team's nerve holds then!!

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