Kent v Derbyshire day 4

Kent 352 and 335

Derbyshire 304 and 158 (Reece 67, Milne 6-12)

Kent won by 225 runs

What has gone wrong at Derbyshire?

After seven days of the summer, there was more sweetness and light than in a double bill of Shirley Temple films, followed by reruns of The Waltons. 

The county had come close to beating a relegated side, Worcestershire and were well on top against the highly-fancied Lancashire. Since then, the wheels have come off in spectacular fashion. Collapsing badly to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at Old Trafford, before playing some poor cricket against Gloucestershire. They lost almost all of their attack over the winter, yet were still more than a match for a Derbyshire side in seeming disarray. 

In this game, against the second of the three teams widely tipped to be contesting the wooden spoon, we have looked off the pace, undercooked, ill-prepared, call it as you will. I hesitate to say it, but some of the cricket has been unworthy of first-class status. That the best player has been one who was fairly recently playing Minor Counties speaks volumes.

Matt Milnes bowled very well, but the visiting batters didn't make his work overly strenuous. The lineup just doesn't look right to me. The top three shows little confidence, yet we have an experienced opening bat who is one of our best two players at six - consigned to batting with the tail - and someone whose best days for the county have been when he batted three, down at number seven. I don't know about Brooke Guest, but when I batted high in the order I had the mentality of a top order player, down the order, less so. My gut feeling is Brooke likes to be involved and not sitting waiting to bat - let's not forget he opened for Australia Under-19s.

Meanwhile, a lad who is scoring runs for fun, opening in the second team, can't get into the squad. I cannot be alone in failing to make sense of this.

Rightly or wrongly there appears to be a disconnect between the first and second team, with elevation seemingly a notional, rather than realistic idea.

I travel down to Derby on Thursday for the first of my trips this season. I said to my wife this morning that I wish I hadn't bothered, because my expectations are currently very low. How can they be otherwise after recent displays? 

Mickey Arthur has to start earning his generous salary and show that he is prepared to take tough decisions. It is all well and good having overnight sound bites that we look on the final day as 'an opportunity' and 'we stick together and keep believing' when the batting order is clearly shorn of confidence and needs an urgent overhaul, merely to compete. 

There's no point in playing Nye Donald in the next match, as he has been carrying drinks for the last two and needs time in the middle. But Mitch Wagstaff and Amrit Basra SURELY need to come into the side, while others search for form?

I know we have had injuries, bad ones, season-ending in some cases. I know our overseas strike bowler has headed off to Bangladesh unexpectedly. These are things against which you have to rail, develop a siege mentality and overcome. I have nothing but admiration for Luis Reece, who has the illness of his child in the background, yet is producing performance after performance, even with a bad ankle himself. In this match he looked like the 'ringer' brought in by a club side to give them a chance.

If a few others showed they can do the same, we switch personnel and tweak the order, maybe - just maybe - we can salvage something, anything from what until now is a car crash season.

Chappell and Aitchison battled hard in what is not their main discipline, to at least take the game into the afternoon session but it was not enough, as Kent ran out overwhelming winners by 225 runs. They played as a team, battled down the order, held some fine catches and looked in a different class. The bottom team looked in a different class. Let that sink in...

Finally, after the game I don't want to hear any complaints about the pitch on the last day. The odd one kept low, an occasional one lifted, but that is what I would expect from a fourth day pitch.

Lest we forget, we consigned ourselves to batting last on it, when we won the toss and opted to bowl...

Ugh, that was horrible to watch. 

Postscript. Anticipating a question that will surely come, what team would I go with against Northamptonshire, were I in charge?

We have to shake up the top order, because we aren't getting starts. 

I would rest Caleb Jewell and let him work with the batting coach, maybe have a hit with a league team at the weekend. Same goes for Harry Came, who could be considered unlucky, but I would want to accommodate Basra's vitality and go with this side:

Reece, Wagstaff, Guest, Madsen, Andersson, Montgomery, Basra, Chappell, Aitchison, Haydon, Bashir. 

Would it do any better? 

Could it do any worse?