Derbyshire v Sussex day 3

Derbyshire 246 and 109 (Seales 5-29)

Sussex 479 (Pujara 113, Dupavillon 3-89, Morley 3-117)

Sussex won by an innings and 124 runs

I predicted a draw in this game on the radio on Friday night, my caveat being that one team had to make a real mess of things, given the weather forecast at the time.

Step forward Derbyshire 

That was pretty awful to watch. On a pitch where the Sussex tail scored runs largely at will in the morning, the Derbyshire batting offered all the resistance of a balsa wood bat in the afternoon, producing another anaemic display that has to make one question the coaching set up.

I don't think these are bad players. In some cases they are very good, but the bottom line is that the level of performance this summer hasn't been close to acceptable from a supporter's perspective. In any sport, that's where you question the input of the coaching staff and there's currently one fundamental question to answer.

Has the current set up improved any player at the club? I am not convinced that they have and after the bright new dawn of the first season under Mickey Arthur, the good ship Derbyshire is in danger of running aground on the rocks. I hope that Samit Patel and Ross Whiteley have got their Superman outfits ready for T20, because we will otherwise struggle desperately at this rate.

One has to question the apparently authoritarian manner of the Head of Cricket and ask if it is working and the answer appears to be no. Harsh questions need to be asked, because this is as bad as I have seen, with a squad that is not the worst we have had by a long chalk. I was critical of Dave Houghton when performances dipped to unacceptable levels and this was every bit as bad. 

One would also question a Derbyshire side that features no player from the county's own set up. I'm not saying they would do better, I'm not claiming the players in the side aren't trying. But if we are going to capitulate in such a fashion, then we could hardly do worse with Conners, Wagstaff, Whiteley and Potts in the eleven.

Wagstaff scored 82 and took 4-29 for Alvaston and Boulton yesterday. Whiteley scored a hundred last time out for the second team. Conners was left out for this one when he is unlikely to play any T20, so I see no logic in the omission from a 'rest' perspective  Instead he took 4-36 for Ockbrook and Borrowash at Belper. I'm not claiming the standard is the same, but these are performances that should justify consideration, at the very least.

After Dupavillon and Morley bowled pretty well in the morning, Derbyshire were blown away in the afternoon by a Sussex side a country mile ahead of them in performance. Jayden Seales bowled fast and straight and the batting did the rest. We bowled short at tail enders, they used the pitch and their heads in equal measure.

Last week I suggested that a first innings limitation of a hundred overs might move four day cricket along. We batted 89 overs across two innings here.

Woeful is an opposite word. 

There are plenty of others.