Durham 337-9 declared
Derbyshire 355-4 (Reece 122, Madsen 52, Godleman 51, Critchley 46* du Plooy 40, Hudson-Prentice 26*)
Derbyshire lead by 18 runs
In the morning and for a good part of the afternoon, Derbyshire accumulated steadily on a slow, flat wicket. Reece and Godleman batted well, before the skipper holed out to cover.
Enter Madsen and he went on to make a fifty, before being bowled playing perhaps the ugliest shot of his long career. The ball didn't get up and it ended half sweep, half pull, some way removed from his usual aesthetic self.
Luis Reece played some fine shots in his first century of the summer, including a straight six and a few from his one-day repertoire.
The wicket was flat yet not quick enough for all out assault. With tomorrow's forecast largely unpleasant, the task was to get as many batting points as possible, as a positive result would need nine days on such a wicket.
Yet Durham put on Stuart Poynter for his first ever bowl of flighted filth at one end with plenty out on the boundary, as if trying to buy a wicket. Which seemed fine, but bowled Paul Coughlin at the other. It was all rather odd.
When normal service resumed, Reece accelerated with the century achieved, before perishing in the deep. Like his captain, the shot was played with only one hand on the bat, adding to the surreal feeling of it all.
Du Plooy and Critchley then moved into one-day mode, before the former was bowled by a slow yorker in the gathering gloom.
It was left to the stylish Critchley and the powerful Hudson-Prentice to get us past 350 and four batting points, as a gloomy evening ended in bright sunshine.
It was a professional batting performance, the innings well-paced. It also keeps us top of the group, for now.
And very much in the mix for the final.
I must admit to being concerned mid afternoon at our scoring rate -even wondered whether our staff were viewing the same weather predictions as my self lol ! But by close of play satisfied with where we find ourselves bearing in mind events elsewhere.As posted before still feel that Tom W should be given more of a chance to prove himself and in these strange times maybe Anuj could go in higher to build an innings.But what do I know lol !!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work
Alison
Another very solid batting performance, showing again that early discipline and care gets its reward as front-line batsmen are there to take advantage of tiring bowlers and an old ball. This has been the best development this year as we've converted the helter-skelter starts that so often have left us 5 down for not many and playing catch-up for the rest of the game into substantial first innings Since the first innings collapse against Notts that needed du Plooy and Connors rescue act, we haven't scored less than 300, and in large part, that's what has put us still at the top of the group.
ReplyDeleteSince we can't possibly win and can only get one more bonus point, the best result for us today is a national wash-out that prevents play anywhere. This would leave us the highest points-scorer a point ahead of Worcestershire and Essex, with Somerset and Yorkshire a few points behind. It looks as if Essex, Somerset and Worcs will get a chance of some cricket though, leaving us as low as 4th but still only 4 points behind Somerset. But there's no likely scenario, other than another round like this, where we can qualify for the final without beating Lancashire.