Kent v Derbyshire day 2

Kent 379 (Northeast 191, Palladino 4-76, Davis 3-86)

Derbyshire 291-3 (Hughes 83, Madsen 73 not, Rutherford 65)

Derbyshire trail by 88 runs


A good, solid day for Derbyshire today ended with the side in a position of some dominance and perhaps able to push ahead tomorrow and leave the hosts with a tricky final day.

The last Kent wickets went down with the minimum of fuss, leaving them 21 short of their final batting bonus point and Sam Northeast dismissed nine short of a double century. Four wickets for Tony Palladino completed another sound performance by the veteran seamer, who is enjoying a good season.

Our batting progress was solid, rather than spectacular, but with two days left in the game, that was the requirement at this stage. The Kent attack, shorn of Matt Coles for 'personal reasons', could make little impact and all of the batsmen got starts.

Both Hamish Rutherford and Chesney Hughes will be disappointed not to convert good innings into match-defining ones, though Wayne Madsen sailed serenely on to stumps in the company of Neil Broom. With Ben Slater and Shiv Thakor to come next, Derbyshire have plenty of batting to push ahead and make the final day a potential push for victory - albeit on a wicket that is now said to be slow and lifeless.

The thinking money will remain on the draw, so Derbyshire need to get ahead and then push on tomorrow.

At least, I'm sure, that's the plan at this stage.

Postscript...in a jocular fashion, maybe it's time for whoever updates the score to stop saying 'X is going well' or 'This is a great partnership'. Invariably it results in a wicket. Today was 'Chesney is looking back to the form in which he started the campaign'. Next tweet is 'Wicket: Chesney is out'.

Sigh...I know - when they bat, try 'the Derbyshire attack is looking fairly ineffective today'.

We'll bowl 'em out in two sessions...