Derbyshire v Leicestershire day 2

After the elation felt by most fans following the emphatic win at the Oval last week, it would have to be said that today was something of an anti-climax.

Indeed, if it hadn't been for a partnership between Greg Smith and Robin Peterson for the sixth wicket, Derbyshire could well have been following on in this game. As it is, they will need to raise their game dramatically in the next couple of days to get out of this one intact.

As at the Oval, the last wicket merriment from (this time) Steffan Jones and Mark Footitt made our innings look a little better than might otherwise have been the case. The Leicestershire lead was not inconsiderable, but the psychological barrier of being over a hundred behind was avoided.

We will need to do much better in the second innings though, that's for sure.

Of course, we have no right to expect to win all of our games and this serves as a reality check for all fans, myself included. I have written before that we will have good and bad days throughout the course of the season. All teams do and the path to success is in keeping these to a minimum.

Winning at the Oval didn't make Derbyshire the invincibles and losing this one wouldn't make them the worst team in the world either. There have been numerous examples of teams making poor starts and doing well and many more of teams getting off to a flyer and doing badly. It is too early to be making an assessment of how far we have come over the winter, but I still feel that we are a better side than we showed when batting today, though not perhaps as good as we showed at the Oval.

What everyone will need to remember is that this is a work in progress. A look at the side from two to three years ago compared to today highlights where we have come from. Mind you, at lunchtime I thought we had turned the game around thanks to the Smith/Peterson stand, then the wheels came off in the afternoon, much as they did for Leicestershire yesterday.

Realistically, I wouldn't have thought we would want to be chasing more than 300 in the final innings, so we will need to bowl and field brilliantly from here to stay in the game. We have only successfully chased over 300 seven times in 140 years, so the portents do not look great. A draw may not be impossible though, but it goes without saying that we also need to bat a heck of a lot better in the second dig too.

Disappointed? Yes. Disheartened? Not yet, by a long chalk.

Finally tonight, there were a couple of unfair comments on 606 (now removed) with regard to Paul Borrington. OK, the lad hasn't yet set the heather on fire in his three innings, but then neither have Wayne Madsen, Garry Park or Dan Redfern. I have every confidence that all of them will come good in due course, but to apportion blame on a young lad starting his career with the county is just crazy. The season has hardly started, for goodness sake and that's what happens in cricket, as anyone who has ever played it knows all too well.

Keep behind your team. They're doing their best - we need to do the same and support them, in the good days and the bad.

As Scarlett O'Hara once said, tomorrow is another day...