Worcestershire v Derbyshire day 2

A good fightback today, led by two young batsman who should be a fixture in our side for some time to come.

Paul Borrington (20 and pictured) and Greg Smith (25) played beautifully to take Derbyshire within touching distance of avoiding the follow on, this after Rogers, Birch and Hinds had gone to leave us precariously placed at 123-3.

They took the score to 252 before both were dismissed by Simon Jones for 85 and 88 respectively. In between, skipper Rikki Clarke kept up his wretched run of Championship form with an ill-judged second ball hoik at Jones which resulted in a catch to the keeper.

Tom New, on his Championship debut and Jon Clare saw Derbyshire to stumps on 278-6. Tomorrow's immediate target is to avoid the follow on, which requires a further 23 runs. With a good forecast, we would hope for a few more than that, and it would be good to limit the first innings deficit to less than three figures.

There is still everything to play for in this game. There is also a degree of irony in that the three batsman I labelled our best last night (Rogers, Hinds and Clarke) mustered just 38 runs between them in this innings.