Essex v Derbyshire day 4

So there was a fine late effort from Derbyshire but my fears were realised as we went down to Essex at Chelmsford today.

Despondent? No, as we were essentially beaten by one terrific innings by a quality of player we will see little of this summer. Take away Alasdair Cook's effort and we'd have had that in the bag.

Yes, the batting must do better and it's unrealistic to expect the lower order to score more runs than the top order, but they will come again. Shiv looks like he's in fine fettle and the skipper fought well on the first evening. Both Stephen Moore and Billy Godleman got starts and the key now is for them to go on from there and make a worthwhile score.

Likewise, Wes 'n' Ches will need to add greater ballast to the middle order, but there's no point in overreacting to the first game of the summer. It was good to see David Wainwright get runs under his belt and Tim Groenewald's aggressive knock made us dream for a short time today. Both are good cricketers and will play a major part this season

Next up are Hampshire, who got a morale-boosting win today. They have plenty of good players, but so do we and we must aim to bounce back quickly.

I don't see many changes to the team, with Mark Turner, wicketless at Chelmsford, perhaps the most vulnerable. Tony Palladino and Jon Clare are both battling to replace him and the seam attack will be sharp, whoever gets the nod.

Onwards and upwards...