Durham v Derbyshire T20

Durham 193-2  (MacLeod 83, Stoneman 82 not, Neesham 1-25)

Derbyshire 180-9 (Broom 68, Durston 44, Borthwick 3-33)

Durham won by 13 runs

Alas, at the end of it all, came disappointment.

There wasn't a point tonight at which I thought 'yeah, we can win this', despite a fine effort from Neil Broom, an innings that hinted of vintage Wes Durston and a brief flurry from Shiv Thakor that took us from 'no chance' to 'maybe'.

The side's weakness was well revealed tonight, as Mark Stoneman and Calum MacLeod put our young attack to the sword. Jimmy Neesham bowled an exemplary spell to finish a solid, if not spectacular spell as overseas specialist, but the rest went for ten an over and we're not that good a batting side that two hundred falls easily within our compass.

All a little frustrating really, as Warwickshire (or Birmingham) failed to chase 125 to win at Old Trafford, showing that it really is a tight group where any side can beat another on a given night and four points separated fourth place qualifying and bottom of the table. We went from verge of qualification to third bottom with one defeat, despite a T20 summer in which we played much better cricket than previous years.

'A game of extremely fine margins and we need to get on the right side of them, fast' tweeted chairman Chris Grant tonight. He's absolutely right and if we could have found an extra 5% this summer we would be in the quarter-finals, without doubt.

A young team has potential, though some may not get to the promised land alongside them. Winter recruitment will be key to that - but there's a piece for another day.

Attention now turns to the last rolls of the dice in the RLODC.

Can we win two from two? On recent evidence, I have my doubts.

So go prove me wrong.