Middlesex v Derbyshire day 4

Middlesex 260

Derbyshire 304-7 (du Plooy 100*, Hosein 57, Bamber 5-93)

Match drawn

There's not much to say about the shortened final day of the summer's cricket season than that two players who emerged during it made the biggest impression.

Leus du Plooy became the first Derbyshire batsman to make home and away centuries against Middlesex, ending a highly impressive first summer with the county in a way I expect to become quite commonplace. The raising of the bat and removal of the helmet to reveal a bandana could become a regular occurrence if this summer is anything to go by and his class has been evident from the start of his career with us.

So too that of Fynn Hudson-Prentice, who again showed how he could become a key player in the years ahead with a breezy cameo. Twenty wickets at 23, together with a batting average of 34 suggests that in Fynn and Luis Reece we have two genuine all rounders, not just bowlers who bat, or batsmen that bowl.

The recruitment of those two this summer has been a massive plus, but a look at the playing staff on the club website shows that strengthening is needed over the winter.

It lists twenty players on the staff, but that includes Tony Palladino, who plays only four-day cricket, Mark Watt who played only a few one-day games and Daryn Smit, who has been primarily in the seconds. With Logan van Beek there and already gone, Darren Stevens another and likewise, Qadri a third and going, it leaves a paper-thin squad in urgent need of reinforcement. Hopefully one of those might be Tom Lace, who is also up there, but still technically a Middlesex player.

I will be back over the weekend with my end of season review, and I look forward to your comments in due course.