Derbyshire v Somerset day 2

Four wickets for Palladino, two for Groenewald - why, it was just like high summer, 2012 at the County Ground today...

Tony Palladino had a slow start to the season, but has been sorely missed in the past few weeks, especially at Derby, where he has come to know the track so well and has taken plenty of wickets. Four wickets today hopefully made up for those weeks out in some small way and, following on from his crucial innings yesterday, underlined his importance to this Derbyshire side.

He could have had five, of course and I just hope that the dropped slip catch that reprieved Peter Trego doesn't come back to bite us. Trego is a dangerous player and had Somerset closed on 170-7 tonight we could have had a handy first innings lead. We still could, but we will need to get him quickly tomorrow in order to do so, or we could equally easily be looking at a deficit, which in a low scoring game is not part of the plan, unless it is more cunning than anything ever thought up by Baldrick from Blackadder.

It was good to see Tim Groenewald back to his parsimonious best too on a track that seems to have suited him as much as his oft-time sparring partner. He has not had the success of previous summers this year, but has not been alone in that, yet he remains a one hundred per cent cricketer who is fit more often than most and continues to be an asset to the team and also to Wayne Madsen as a senior professional.

It isn't an easy track for batting and when you see England openers having to work at their game, it puts into perspective the challenges faced by the likes of Godleman, Hughes and Slater, openers all and having to work their way into the first-class scene. By the same token, Billy really needs runs tomorrow, or whenever we begin our second innings.

I suspect that the weather may yet take too much from this game for a positive result and it will take something spectacular - in a good and bad way - for that to happen, with more rain forecast for tomorrow ahead of a nice day on Monday.

Yet Derbyshire continue to battle and have fought their way back into the game against a team of reasonable international pedigree. Perhaps we're only now starting to realise that we can handle this level of the game and are capable of competing. Perhaps there was too much cap-doffing at the big boys at the start, too much deference being shown.

In the right conditions, with all personnel present, we can give it one hundred per cent and a good go.

No one can argue with that.