Leicestershire 484 (van Beek 82*)
Derbyshire 346-8 (Andersson 101*, Jewell 83, Dal 43, Chappell 37, Tickner 13* van Beek 3-87)
Derbyshire trail by 138 runs
Led by a magnificent maiden first class century by Martin Andersson, with support from Nuj Dal, Zak Chappell and Blair Tickner, Derbyshire recovered from the perilous position of 66-4 and 139-6 to reach 346-8 by the close.
After Logan van Beek and Tom Scriven had added 83 for the last home wicket, before Jack Morley finished things off, Derbyshire did not start well and lost David Lloyd to a fairly ineffectual push at van Beek to be caught and bowled. Came was leg before without scoring, as was Guest soon afterwards and when Madsen went the same way, the follow on was a very distant target.
Reece added a half century stand with Jewell, before being dismissed and without looking entirely convincing. The Tasmanian again batted beautifully, but gave two lives that came back to bite the home side. He made his way to a third successive half century before being bowled by one that kept horribly low.
A century stand between Dal and Andersson gave Derbyshire hope, with plenty of common sense cricket being played, but the dismissal of Dal, a third wicket for van Beek who has enjoyed an excellent debut, looked like the end for the Innings.
Chappell is much improved with the bat however and added 58 with Andersson, before an ill-advised swipe at Mike saw him caught on the square leg boundary.
With Derbyshire still 28 runs short of avoiding the follow on, Tickner came in and played with great common sense, enabling Andersson to steer his side to the target and reach his maiden first class century in doing so.
Andersson looks a very organised, composed and controlled cricketer. I don't think anyone will deny he improves the side and will be a considerable asset to it in the months and hopefully years ahead. I very much enjoyed what I saw of him today.
By the close, with Tickner refusing singles to protect Andersson, Derbyshire were still 138 runs behind but in a place that seemed unlikely earlier in the day.
I won't get overly upset about batting failures after three first class innings and I am sure the ones struggling will soon discover their best form.
I will, however, celebrate the fighting spirit that kept Derbyshire in this game. If that becomes a feature of the summer, we will do considerably better than those of recent past.
Such an achievement to avoid the follow-on , especially when we were 139-6 at one stage and with Madsen gone. Andersson seems a great asset to the side. Let's hope we can add more runs tomorrow to get nearer to Leics mammoth total and then put their batting under pressure second time around.
ReplyDeleteThe fighting spirit is to be commended. We are still a long way off being able to escape with a draw though. Hopefully there's no serious deterioration of the wicket on day 4.
ReplyDeleteThere's been no obvious turn so far, but the odd one keeping low, as Caleb will testify..
DeleteThere's been no obvious turn so far, but the odd one keeping low, as Caleb will testify..
DeleteDave Fletcher perfectly summed up the day: "Superb battling by Derbyshire." When we slumped to 139-6, I thought, here we go again, another limp Derbyshire batting performance and we'll be all out for under 200. I was wrong. Mickey said in a recent interview that Andersson was underrated as a batsman. He was spot on.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope we can bowl Leicestershire out again, but fairly cheaply, and then set about a run chase.
We can win this game.
I only caught the after tea session yesterday, and was very disappointed when I saw the score. Great batting by Andersson and many congratulations to him on a superb maiden century and a fantastic recovery. If we can limit the first innings deficit we can go on and have a chance of winning. Let’s go Derbyshire !
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