Northamptonshire 255 and 198-8 (Viljoen 4-51, Rampaul 3-53)
Derbyshire 222 (Hughes 75, Lace 38)
Northamptonshire lead by 231 runs
There's a battle royal going on going on at Northampton, on a wicket where runs can be scored with due care, technique and diligence, but bowlers can get their reward with bowling in the right areas.
So it proved in the final session for Derbyshire, though my gut feeling is that we let the home side get away in the first innings and in the afternoon session yesterday.
There were four wickets for Hardus Viljoen yesterday, though still a few of those horrific balls that makes the wicket-keeper despair. There were also three wickets for Ravi Rampaul, including an excellent caught and bowled that saw him get down faster than one might expect for a man of his build.
It does look like we will need to make something close to the game's highest score to win this one, though and that could be a challenge on a fourth day wicket.
Not impossible though, and with all results possible the game should be well worth following today.
To be honest, it looks better on paper than it did in real life. We gifted Northants the opportunity to take control of their declaration with some very poor bowling in the middle of the last session which let them add 70 in 10 overs after a period of very disciplined bowling up to tea and just after. At this stage, it was easy to see Northants getting 300 ahead by the close and able to set an unattainable target early this morning. They then gifted it back again with some reckless batting that leaves things finely balanced. Two quick wickets this morning and a target under 250 gives us a chance. It's one that we haven't achieved in more than 3 years to win a game and if Northants' bowlers can replicate their excellence in the first innings, it's going to be very difficult. The one thing that will be in our favour is that the pitch isn't really showing any sign of deteriorating, and we should have the best batting conditions of the match. it was very noticeable that after the clouds lifted at lunchtime yesterday, there was much less movement even if scoring runs was still difficult against disciplined bowling.
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