Captain Billy Godleman says that despite standout performances, Derbyshire were not good enough as they were defeated by Northamptonshire in the Specsavers County Championship.
Derbyshire took six wickets in the opening hour on Day Three to dismiss Northamptonshire for 277, but set 320 to win they were bowled out for 191.
Godleman said: “We didn’t play good enough cricket. We could have bowled Northamptonshire out for closer to 175 in the first innings, so I did think we were a bit short there.
“But the manner in which we lost our wickets in both innings was soft and that really hurts me.”
Conor McKerr took career-best match figures of 10-141, whilst Tom Taylor hit 69 and Daryn Smit was unbeaten on 29 in the final innings.
“Conor was magnificent,” said Godleman. “Taking ten wickets in a match doesn’t happen very often and I am very pleased for him. He’s really keen, tries hard and has been great for us.
“That sort of situation at the end also brought out the best in Daryn. He was able to show us his fighting ability at the crease and a really good technique as well.”
Derbyshire were held back by rain at Trent Bridge last week and Godleman believes this adds to the disappointment of defeat at Northamptonshire.
“Everyone is not just disappointed because we lost, but because we played so well last week. We are very clear that to win games of cricket you need to put sessions back to back and do it across four days and Northamptonshire did it better than us in this game.”
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