Derbyshire v Surrey: Day 2

Another good day for Derbyshire today and, I suspect, a pivotal morning’s cricket tomorrow, as Surrey embark on a quest to match our impressive 452 all out.

Mark Footitt apparently bowled quickly with no reward tonight, though, Vikram Solanki, who needed treatment after being struck by the fast left armer may disagree. Ricky Ponting, as has been the case for so many years, will be the key wicket and we will need to bowl well on a wicket that is a long way from being difficult yet.

I suspect the spinners will be key to a positive result in this one and we must hope that David Wainwright has discovered some form. In Scotland, he was bowling too many short and wide deliveries and the teasing length of last summer was not especially evident. It is quite likely that his winter back issue has caused a slight modification to the action that only long bowls will help him to eradicate. If that’s the case, I reckon he’ll get one here.

Top marks to the skipper and to Shivnarine Chanderpaul for their knocks though, which set us up for an innings that we might have only dreamed of before the game. That Shiv batted through either a heavy cold or flu, depending on which report you read, makes his effort the more laudable, while Madsen is simply a class act.

After finding his range in the first few games, Wayne is now starting to show that he is totally at home at this level. Dropping down to three has been a contributory factor, but I had few doubts that he would be a major run scorer. The guy can play and class will always, always tell.

It was good to see Richard Johnson getting good and valuable runs down the order too and he is an organised player with a good technique. What Derbyshire really need is a wicket-keeper in the James Pipe mould, one who can change games for them with the bat and keep to a high standard. When I have seen Johnson, he has been very slick behind the stumps, but he needs to be consistent as Tom Poynton will keep working in the seconds and aim to score the runs to earn a recall himself.

In short, another good day, the second on the trot. It was also good to see Martin Guptill put England to the sword today, especially when he was so poorly treated in the Test series. As I have written on here before, opening the batting is a specialist position and I could see no logic to their omitting, then demoting one of the best to the middle order, where he has little recent experience, not least of having to wait to bat.

That was a factor for Ben Slater today. That he was in to face the second new ball was handy. That he had to wait several hours to do so was not. He deserves a run in the side and, in my opinion, is more likely to be successful if he opens, rather than batting six. I did like the picture taken of his first run for the county though, something that he will doubtless treasure in the years ahead. Nice thought, top marks from me for that.