Derbyshire v Essex CB40

On the up side, we scored 299 runs in 40 overs today, with several players getting runs and Chesney Hughes showing what a talent he is and is going to be.

On the down side, despite Duckworth Lewis decreeing that our visitors needed 248 in 30 overs, they breezed it for the loss of five wickets, despite being 64-4 at one stage. For some reason, Ryan ten Doeschate becomes Garry Sobers when he plays against us and hit an unbeaten 109 from just 62 balls as Essex won with 16 balls to spare.

I could understand it more if we were undone again by a special player, but the Dutchman has now annihilated us twice in a short period of time without our appearing to learn what and how to bowl at him. He is a clean hitter with a good eye, but not, by any stretch of the imagination, a brilliant player.

Last week I wrote in the blog that I would have liked to transplant Harold Rhodes and Alan Ward from the 1960's team to the present day eleven. That team would have laughed at the concept of scoring 299 in 40 overs, but with batsmen slower on their feet and less innovation with strokeplay, conceding 248 in 27 overs would have been totally unrealistic.

So was today an extraordinary innings, or some very average bowling? I don't know, maybe a bit of both, but what I do know is that unless we find someone or some method of bowling in one day cricket we are not going to win many matches.

When I happily received a text this afternoon to say that Essex had slipped to 64-4, I sent one back to say that we needed to get ten Doeschate. It was more a reflection of his batting in the last match of last season than any genuine fear that lightning would strike twice. Surely, surely, we wouldn't fail to defend that sort of total?

Well, we did. I'm reminded of a story about Brian Clough, who once scored five for Middlesborough yet saw his team lose the game 6-5. After the game, Clough, ever the man for the quick comment, said that "maybe if I score six next week we'll get a draw," a comment aimed squarely at his team mates in the defence.

Maybe Chris Rogers and his batsmen need to get 375 next time. Or we need to see if Harold Rhodes and Alan Ward can make the next one day fixture.

It might go to the last over.