To stay in the game is Peters’ aim

Two straight defeats to Yorkshire and Lancashire have sent the County to the bottom of the LV= County Championship Division One pile after three rounds of games.

The rise in standards from the second tier was expected to provide Peters’ men with a tough test, which has proved to be the case, but although the captain acknowledges the need for a significant improvement, he isn’t too downcast.

He said: “Obviously I’m disappointed that we’ve lost two out of three game and are bottom of the league.

“We weren’t very good at Headingley but against Dutrham and Lancashire we’ve been in the game and been competitive which I think is very important.

“Unfortunately that doesn’t win you any games.”

One of the biggest concerns for the County at the minute has been an inability of their batsmen to post consistently competitive totals.

And while Peters pointed to the examples being set by James Middlebrook and Matthew Spriegel, he knows that the other members of the top order have to do an awful lot better.

He continued: “There have been a few positives and Midders (Middlebrook) and Spriegs (Spriegel) have been very good so far.

“But there are a few guys in the top six who need to contribute a lot more and that’s fact.

“In cricket there’s winning a game and contributing, secondly there’s winning a game and not contributing and thirdly there’s losing and not contributing.

“That’s the worst and a few of us have been doing that so we know that needs to change.”