Derbyshire head of cricket Dave Houghton remains positive after narrow defeat

That was the positive view of head of cricket, Dave Houghton, after a narrow defeat at Durham in the Specsavers County Championship.

Durham (293 and 242) claimed a 29-run victory in a game that was closely contested over the course of all four days.

As the match drew to a close, Derbyshire were dismissed for 238, despite 71 from Matt Critchley — to follow-up on 79 not out in the first innings (268).

Positive scoring after tea on the final day saw Derbyshire hit 130 runs in under 33 overs to give themselves a chance of winning.

But the loss of four quick wickets proved crucial at Emirates Riverside.

Houghton said: “It was never going to be easy, and we lost four wickets in seven balls, so the boys are pretty down.

“But we are playing a really good brand of cricket at the moment.

“This one didn’t go our way, and it doesn’t feel great losing, but we have to make sure that we continue to play this brand of cricket all the time, to give ourselves a lot of chances to win.

“(At Durham) we were maybe a little bit slow in getting up to tea, but we wanted to get to tea with wickets in hand so that we could give it a real good go.

“As it turned out, we probably would have been better being more positive from the start, because as the ball got older, the wicket played a little harder and it stayed low.”