IF ever there was a game crying out for someone to take hold of it by the scruff of the neck, this is it.

One exceptional – or even one pretty good – individual performance may be all it takes to tilt the balance of an LV County Championship match between Derbyshire and Middlesex which has meandered pretty anonymously, so far, through the first two days.

The weather has been remarkably kind to this fixture, bearing in mind that there has been no play at all in three of the six matches and whole lost days in the other two.

But it is yet to make the most of its good fortune, even though there is certainly a chance of a victory for either of these sides, who are both desperately in need of one.

Derbyshire ended yesterday on 128-3 in their first innings, trailing by 178, having eventually bowled Middlesex out for 306.

It has not, in truth, been easy conditions for batting and the game could have been much further advanced if either team had been able to take their catches.

Derbyshire dropped four on the first day and allowed another chance to slip through yesterday, while Middlesex squandered two opportunities in the reply.

It would not be entirely accurate to call Derbyshire's latest lapse a drop because neither Chris Rogers at first slip nor Rikki Clarke at second got a hand to it as the ball flew between them off the edge of Gareth Berg's bat.

That did not cost them too badly as Berg, on five, went on to make only 26 and Middlesex also escaped without too much damage when first slip Murali Kartik allowed an edge from Dan Birch, on 11, to fly through to the boundary at knee height.

But Middlesex may yet be made to regret their second miss.

That came when Rogers was on 27. The new Derbyshire captain cut firmly at a ball from Dan Evans but Ed Joyce, the Middlesex skipper, could not hold a chance that flew straight into his lap.

By the close, Rogers (pictured below) was 59 not out, his 10th first-class score of 50 or more this season. He could certainly be the man to make the difference if he turns it into his fourth century.

No other Middlesex batsman came close to suggesting a decent innings to top Joyce's 64, though Dawid Malan, who started the day with an x-ray of his bruised forearm after being hit by Graham Wagg on the first day, returned to make 33 and Kartik added an unbeaten 33 late on.

Derbyshire could not claim to have bowled particularly well, though Ian Hunter, playing in a Championship match for the first time since the opening game of the campaign, deserved a lot better than his 2-62 in 24 lively overs.

Wavell Hinds, as he did at Worcester, weighed in with two useful wickets as he lured Berg and Malan into miscued pull shots – an indication, perhaps, of the lack of pace in this wicket.

But it still took Derbyshire precisely 100 overs to bowl Middlesex out and it was hard to avoid the feeling they should not have allowed the away side to rack up as many as they did.

Paul Borrington became Tim Murtagh's 50th Championship victim of the season at 17-1 but Rogers and Birch put on 71 for the second wicket.

Birch was bowled driving at Indian left-arm spinner Kartik for 39 and Hinds followed two balls later, lbw for two.

But Rogers, whose 50 came off 97 balls with six fours, saw the day through. Derbyshire and the game need him to push on from here.