Middlesex woes v Derbyshire: A blip or worrying trends?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, no-one from the home dressing-room fronted for interview at the end of the second day’s play – one which saw Middlesex close 13-1 in their second innings, still needing 186 to avoid an innings defeat.

The huge deficit arose after Derbyshire reached 376 all out from a starting point of 106-4 to amass a lead of 199.

Of course, there is still time to turn this game around, though given the spicy nature of this pitch and the amount of the deficit that appears unlikely. To cite Edmund Blackadder from Blackadder Goes Forth, ‘Baldrick, we’re in the stickiest situation since Sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun,’ and the fear is we’re going to need something far more substantial than the said Baldrick’s proposed ‘cunning plan.’