Derbyshire v Sussex - the day that never was...

Today's torrential rain ruined what would have been a gripping final day at the County Ground. Both sides will have fancied their chances overnight, with Sussex having the all-important runs on the board. Yet Derbyshire bowled superbly in the last session of play yesterday to come back into the game and in Robin Peterson had the best spinner of those on display.

Monty Panesar seems to have gone backwards at an alarming rate since his golden days with England and it is hard to see whether this is down to his confidence or technique. As I wrote last night, a spell on South Africa in the winter was only moderately successful and he was comfortably outbowled by Peterson in a crucial game towards the end of their season.

Peterson is, in comparison, the business and his success here must be beyond even the wildest dreams of John Morris. 36 wickets by the start of June is impressive for any bowler, especially a spinner. Peterson has also contributed solid batting, spectacular fielding and a vibrant personality to the mix, working well with the younger players.

We should enjoy him while we can, because as things stand it is unlikely that he would be able to return in 2011. Quite how we replace his all-round talents and the run machine that is Chris Rogers is something that must keep John Morris awake at night, as we have two of the best performing imports in the county game at present. If you throw in the excellent start made by Loots Bosman and the signing of Charl Langeveldt, Morris has done very well with his overseas signings.

There's no news yet as to whether Langeveldt will arrive in time for tomorrow's televised game against Warwickshire, but at this stage there must be question marks against the game going ahead anyway. After today's deluge, there is more forecast for Wednesday, albeit in the form of showers, rather than the nationwide black cloud that covered pretty much everything from Land's End to John O'Groats today. That will be a major disappointment for us while we are on a roll, and especially for the marketing team who will be hoping for a bumper crowd to swell the coffers.

Maybe we'll get a ten over thrash in. Just enough time for a Bosman century if he hits his straps...