Lancashire 293 and 345 (Prince 97, Davies 89, Croft 70, Taylor 6-61Derbyshire 274 and 27-2
Derbyshire need 338 more to win
For two and a half days, Derbyshire and Lancashire have slugged it out like a couple of prize fighters, both working to gain the initiative, neither giving nor seeking any quarter.
It is a sign of how far Derbyshire have come that they have been able to stand toe to toe with a side likely to be in the promotion mix come September. I think we will be up there too, as there are many worse sides in the division, but this game got away from us in the final session today.
At 245-9, a lead of 264, this game was in the balance, but Alex Davies' bold hitting in the final session today took the game away from us. I'm not being negative, but we have successfully chased in excess of 300 to win only a handful of times in our long history.
It is not all doom and gloom. Where there is Gup, there is hope and there are some good batsmen to come in this Derbyshire side. We bat long and showed that in the first innings, but just as Lancashire's big name players stood up to be counted when they batted, so must ours do the same tomorrow.
The ball is doing a bit, but Lancashire proved that it is possible to score runs on it. As is almost always the case at Derby, it will nip about before lunch and the longer Tom Taylor can hang in there and see off the opening overs the better. I wouldn't put my house on our scoring 338 in a day, but I wouldn't expect us to roll over either and if a couple of players get in, the runs can come quickly on a dry outfield.
It may be turning a little, but I'm with Marc, as he posted yesterday on this one. Kerrigan is a useful bowler, but he's not Bishen Bedi and there's no reason why we shouldn't make a decent fist of things tomorrow.
Star of today, and I suspect many tomorrows, was Tom Taylor (pictured), whose six wickets represented a terrific effort by a 20-year old in only his sixth first-class match. He used the new ball well and throughout was accurate and economical, not always things one associates with fledgling county bowlers.
He has a bright future, as does this Derbyshire side, but I suspect they will need to battle at their best to get anything from this game.
Agreed Peakfan, a couple of our top order need to stick around tomorrow, and if it means playing a boring innings then so be it. Really is Lancashire's game to lose now though, but wouldn't be a disgrace to lose to one of the promotion favourites.
ReplyDeleteDon't mind losing so long as we make a go of it. Absolutely appalling final day batting effort heading towards lunch, and will be all over not long after. Will be a thrashing however much we try and dress it up.
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