Tuesday, 1 July 2025

Derbyshire v Lancashire day three

Lancashire 367 and 406-6d (Turner 121*, Balderson 82, Jones 63, Aitchison 3-64)

Derbyshire 261 and 138-3 (Madsen 39* Came 32, Wagstaff 25, Guest 20*)

Derbyshire need 375 runs to win

Unless the weather comes to their aid, Derbyshire will go down to a heavy defeat against Lancashire at Chesterfield tomorrow.

It is little more than they deserve, after an insipid performance on this lovely ground. Only one of these teams has looked like it had an unbeaten record going into this match and it hasn't been Derbyshire.

Despite an admirable opening burst by Ben Aitchison today, the visitors pretty much scored at will and a fine century by Ashton Turner, with good support from George Balderson and Michael Jones, took them to a lead of 512 before Jimmy Anderson declared.

He must expect the forecast showers throughout the day tomorrow to come to little, because they surely didn't need that many runs to be safe from defeat, against a county that has never once made 400 to win in the final innings in 150 years and counting. It was unnecessarily cautious, but if they end up winning it will matter not. If they don't...

When the Derbyshire 'chase' began, it again looked a different pitch. Lancashire were again more consistent in line and length and when Jewell went to Anderson for the fourth time in four red ball innings, the writing was, if not etched upon the wall, at least outlined large in permanent marker. 

Wagstaff and Came resisted well in an attritional half century stand for the second wicket, but neither suggested permanence. There were numerous appeals from a county whose motto should really be 'Plures appellationes quam Dr. Barnardo', but the former eventually drove loosely at the excellent Balderson, who has had a good game here, and was bowled. When Came's resistance ended in the next over, flicking at Bailey, there were even concerns the game might not make the final day.

Jennings spilled a routine catch offered by Madsen soon afterwards, his third of the match, prompting a witty message to me from a friend that 'he should cop them in his mouth, it's usually open..' But it really shouldn't matter, unless the collective overnight Derbyshire rain dance reaps rewards. Guest was also put down, by Turner at slip, otherwise the stout lady might already be working on her scales.

With a few balls now keeping low and the odd one lifting, home hopes rely on that weather preserving their unbeaten record this summer. Madsen remains, having gone past a thousand all-format runs for the fourteenth time (courtesy David Griffin) as does Guest and they need to bat long tomorrow for home hopes to last long into the day.

Yet only the most partisan of supporters would feel it was justified, after a below par and disappointing performance here. 

Seconds win twice against Lancashire

Derbyshire's second team played two T20 matches against their Lancashire counterparts at West Houghton Cricket Club today.

In the first, a strong Derbyshire side won by 5 wickets. Lancashire made 126-7, with the talented Harry Singh making an unbeaten 81 and no one else passing ten. Alex Thomson took 2-20, while Mohammad Ghazanfar and Samit Patel each bowled four tight overs. 

Derbyshire chased them down with five balls to spare, despite Nye Donald being run out without scoring. Yousaf bin Naeem made 39, Ross Whiteley 31 and Harrison Parker 27

The scorecard and video clips can be seen here

In the second game, a much younger side restricted the same Lancashire eleven to 111-9, with Joe Hawkins taking a remarkable 2-12 in his four overs and Ajay Khunti taking 3-13 with his leg spin.

Derbyshire again chased them down to win by four wickets, Khunti (27) and Hawkins (18) the main contributors. Against an attack including Charlie Barnard and Tom Hartley, that was a good effort.

Scorecard and video clips here