Gloucestershire v Derbyshire day 2

Gloucestershire 237 (Bracey 113, Williams 42, Randell 5-41)

Derbyshire 162-2 (Naeem 71, Came 43, Montgomery 40*)

Derbyshire trail by 75 runs

Although Gloucestershire recovered from their  overnight 62-5 to reach 237 at Bristol today, there were reasons for Derbyshire fans to feel satisfied by the close.

They were held up today by an excellent century by one of the underrated cricketers on the county circuit. James Bracey registered his third century against Derbyshire and ticks along with an average in the high thirties, as well as being a wicket keeper of very high quality. He is always the wicket I like to see taken  and that has to be the highest praise for any player. 

He received good support from Will Williams (so good they named him twice..) who must want to carry the Derbyshire attack around in his kit bag. His 42 today followed a 90 at the Our Co-op County Ground in early season and he gives good value to Gloucestershire. He later took the wicket of Harry Came in a tidy spell and can be pleased with his day's work.

For Derbyshire Brett Randell became the first New Zealander to take five wickets in an innings for Derbyshire and fully deserved his figures of 5-41. He is actually the bowler we hoped Mohammad Abbas would be, bowling wicket to wicket and constantly keeping the batters on their toes. I have liked what I have seen so far and Mickey Arthur deserves credit for this signing.

When Derbyshire's turn came to bat, it was good to see Yusuf bin Naeem given an opportunity at the top of the order and he repaid the trust handsomely. 

Although he was caught behind by Bracey just before the close, victim of an excellent delivery from Sai Kishore, Naeem suggested he has what it takes to succeed at this level. He was very composed, willing to take his time and giving himself the best chance of success by playing straight. He became more expansive once he had reached 40 and two delightful sixes over extra cover were the shots of a player in both good form and high confidence. 

At 20 he has a lot of learning to do and there will be days when things will not go his way. But it is encouraging to see a young Derbyshire batter with the willingness to spend time in the middle and the ability to make the most of it. He is the first Derbyshire-born player to score a half century for the county on debut since Tony Borrington, 55 years ago. 

Harry Came also batted well but will be disappointed to again get out when well set, while Matthew Montgomery looked in good touch before the close.

Derbyshire need to build on this excellent start tomorrow and push ahead of the home total, perhaps getting Gloucestershire in again before the close.

We will see soon enough if they can do that, but after a frustrating spell, today carried signs of improvement. 

We will take that, at this stage.

Finally, courtesy of David Griffin, it is worthy of noting a couple of landmarks. Ben Aitchison took his 200th all-format wicket for Derbyshire yesterday, while Brooke Guest took his fiftieth victim of the summer today, the third time he has reached this landmark.

Warm congratulations to both of them, to Brett Randell and of course to Yusuf Bin Naeem.