Worcestershire v Derbyshire day 3

Credit where it's due, Derbyshire came out fighting today and restored pride, although reference to the "d" word is premature by about two sessions by my reckoning.

We may not have many "bests" in the current line up, but in Steffan Jones we must have a contender for the best number eleven in the county game. Today, he and Tim Groenewald put earlier struggles into perspective by adding 123 to take us from 172-9 to 295 all out. It was the second highest last wicket stand in the club history, beating Geoff Miller and Simon Base (107, Yorkshire, 1990) but narrowly failing to pass Alan Hill and Martin Jean-Jacques against the same opponents in 1986, when they added 132.

It was a fine effort by both of them and gave Derbyshire a glimmer of a chance of saving the game. That glimmer had got a little brighter by the end of the day, when we reached 183-3. There was disappointment for Rogers, Madsen and Borrington, who all got starts but then got out, but Park and Smith emerged from personal troughs to battle through to the close. It may be that Paul Borrington has a break now and rediscovers his mojo in the Seconds. One option may be to play Chesney Hughes at three and bring Dan Redfern in at six. Be honest, we're not awash with options right now and Bozza probably needs a break to recharge his batteries and return refreshed in due course.

I had an e mail last night that said that I had been too harsh on the batsmen and had let the bowlers off in my criticism. I'm prepared to accept that to a point. While the batting has been poor for the last three innings, I think it is fair to say that Worcestershire should not have got 550 on this track, given the help there was on the first day. If we'd kept them to under 400, this would have been an interesting game right now, instead of our fighting a rearguard action for some draw points.

To use the local vernacular from these parts, the seamers are cream-crackered just now, with John Morris' rotation plans torn asunder by an array of injuries. At least there's better news in this morning's Derby Telegraph, which suggests that we may see Graham Wagg back in a fortnight (cue loud applause) and Ian Hunter in roughly the same timescale (get clapping again). Sadly, it suggests that an imminent return for Jon Clare is unlikely, but if we can get through the Championship games against Gloucestershire and Sussex, we have three weeks before the next four-dayer.

First, however is tomorrow. It's only a day away, allegedly, and we need to bat for most of it to get anything from this game. The thinking money is still on a home win, but the lads have at least restored a little pride today.