Northamptonshire 255
Derbyshire 118-4 (Hughes 74 not)
A rain-shortened day at Wantage Road, where Alex Hughes continued a fine knock and Tom Lace, together with Gary Wilson, departed before the rains came.
The state of the game, with two decent days of forecast to come, suggests a positive result may well be possible here.
Tomorrow's Derbyshire batting may largely dictate in which direction it goes.
Here's hoping Alex progresses serenely to a century and he gets the support from the plenty of batting to come.
Surprisingly, it's a prompt start here at Northampton, and we need a fightback if we're going to get anything out of this. I was struck yesterday by the disciplined excellence of Northants bowling which made such a stark contrast with ours, Palladino apart. They relentlessly built pressure that was rewarded with loose shots from Lace and Wilson, while Hughes explored every possible route past his stumps off the inside edge. If Northants' bowlers do as well again, we are likely to face a substantial deficit that we'll do well to come back from
ReplyDeleteThinking about this, I realised that just as we've rediscovered how to win at home, we've forgotten how to win away. Also, how long it is since we won batting last, more than 3 years ago. It was here at Northampton, but that's the only omen that is in our favour.