Derbyshire v Gloucestershire day 4

I wrote last night that we needed to get through the first hour or so without alarms today to have any chance of winning this game, Inside the first half hour those hopes were pretty much extinguished as our top three were all back in the pavilion, closely followed by Greg Smith as we were reduced to 15-4.

While the ongoing fragility of our top order batting in comparison to last season is a concern, the main reason for this loss was our bowling on the first and third days, when there were far too many loose deliveries. If we had bowled anything close to our ability, Gloucestershire would have struggled to top 150 on the first day, while yesterday we allowed them to get far too many runs, in conditions that were still favourable for bowlers who put the ball in the right areas.

There is an object lesson for all of us in the Derby Telegraph this morning, however. I didn't know (and I don't think many people did) that Steffan Jones and Mark Footitt were both ill and were unable to play in this game. Added to the loss of Wagg, Footitt, Clare and Hunter through injury, that left us down to the bare bones. Our opponents had three international bowlers - two with full caps - and there was the difference.

Like a few other people, I queried the premature selection of Atif Sheikh in the side when he had problems with no balls on the first day. To be fair, the youngster was much improved in the second innings, took five wickets on his debut and can be pleased with that. He is not yet ready for regular first team cricket, however, as his analyses showed. For suggesting Sheikh's was a strange selection without knowing the facts I apologise.

This is something to bear in mind for the T20, where a few of us (on IMWT) are announcing our first choice side for the tournament. That is fine and dandy, but to use mine as an example, we don't know if Graham Wagg will be fit and neither Loots Bosman nor Charl Langeveldt will be available for the first two games.

That changes the complexion a little and one could say without fear of contradiction that Derbyshire have not had the rub of the green with injuries so far this season. As things stand, I think we will do better in the T20, but what if something happens to Langeveldt or Peterson? They are perhaps our two key bowlers, the ones to be relied on under normal circumstances, but there's little we can do if the injury situation doesn't improve and we're perhaps forced to use Sheikh and Whiteley, with no disrespect intended.

Neither can be considered regular first team material at present and we don’t have a squad of sufficient depth to cope if the injuries continue. There's no doubt that James Pipe is earning his money at present and yesterday he was one of THREE wicket keepers used when Tom Poynton took ill. Pipe donned the gloves until Lee Goddard arrived from Wales, but such problems don't make for an easy life for John Morris.

What isn't clear at the moment is if Chris Rogers will play in those first two games. We know that Buck is taking a well-deserved break for the tournament, but does that mean for all of it or once Bosman and Langeveldt arrive? I'm sure we'll find that out in the next few days.

Anyway we slid to another heavy defeat today. Dan Redfern is having a difficult time but was scoring steadily today. He needs to find a way to turn nice 20s, 30s and 40s into something of more substance. He will come again, but there's a need for us to have patience with a player of genuine talent and perhaps for him to be more patient at the crease.

The one bright spot was the batting of Chesney Hughes once again. In the first innings he batted with astonishing maturity on a track that was far from straightforward for batting and in the second battled away with a greater resolve than some of his more experienced team mates. We scored 511 runs in two innings and Hughes scored 193 of them, statistics that speak for themselves.

The loss doesn't finish our hopes for promotion, but it does mean that we need to play out of our skins from here and string a run of results together. It can be done. We beat Glamorgan easily at the County Ground, yet since then they have won four sucessive games and gone to the top of the table.

While the euphoria of the Oval win seems a long time ago, it is not too late to rekindle it. We just need the County Ground to resemble The A Team once again, rather than an episode of Casualty or ER...