Durham v Derbyshire day 3

Durham 293 and 160-5

Derbyshire 268 (Critchley 79*)

Durham lead by 185 runs

The reason, as I understand it, for the appearance of Leus du Plooy at number eight in the innings yesterday was simple. It was the position vacated by Anuj Dal, the onus being on Leus to work his way up the order on performance.

This innings was a struggle for him, his seventeen runs in 87 balls and two hours of resistance as diametrically opposed to previous innings we have seen as could be. Yet it is more time in English conditions and batting 'oop north' bears little similarity to those he will be used to back home. He hasn't had much batting of late, so the time in the middle will do him good.

He lasted a further half hour this morning, before being undone by one that moved away from Ben Raine. Van Beek helped in a partnership of thirty runs, not always off the middle of the bat, before the return of the same bowler saw his stumps rearranged.

Through it all Critchley had batted beautifully. It was an innings of some maturity, in which he steered away from over-ambition, played straight and punished the bad ball. Palladino kept him company for a while, before looping a catch off the shoulder of the bat to point, though the deficit had by that time been reduced to less than fifty. Rampaul, in typically bucolic fashion, helped to take the total to 268 before being caught behind just before lunch, leaving Critchley unbeaten on a very impressive 79. The deficit was only 25, when last night it looked like being much more than that, with credit due to the team's fighting spirit once again.

After lunch the home side's second innings began and it was once more a turgid affair. The fifty didn't come up until the thirtieth over, albeit faced by some accurate, probing bowling. There were wickets for Rampaul and Reece, but no suggestion of urgency from the home batting that would be required to set a target at some point. Alex Hughes pouched two good catches at second slip, but it was a session that mirrored the first of the game.

From a Derbyshire perspective, it was nice to see bowling that gave nothing away, after the fixture here last year, when shockingly poor bowling turned nigh-certain victory into an abject loss. This is a different, better, more disciplined side, though finding a win here looked to be problematic as tea came with the score 61-2.

Then, in the gathering gloom, it all started to happen. Harte's 80 balls of defiance ended with a catch to Critchley, then Rampaul got down with commendable speed to pouch Burnham off his own bowling, making eight wickets in the match. When Reece bowled Trevaskis, the home side were 86-5 and the pendulum had swung in Derbyshire's direction.

Through it all, Lees had stood defiant, unbeaten on 35 after 195 minutes of dogged defiance. The partnership with Eckersley, many times a thorn in Derbyshire sides, looked set to be match-defining, but bad light and light rain intervened with Durham 98-5.

When the players came back out, Eckersley injected greater urgency into proceedings with some crisp drives and pulls, while Lees reached an invaluable half century after four hours of batting. When play ended for the day, Durham had reached 160-5, Lace missing a golden opportunity to run out Lees with a poor throw to the keeper that went for overthrows.

That's 185 ahead with five wickets left and an intriguing final day is in store. The wicket is far from unplayable, but unless we get early wickets, the thinking money is on a draw. Durham will not want a fifth straight defeat, so any target set is unlikely to be generous.

Derbyshire? Historically we don't chase targets well, so there is a mould to be broken there.