Derbyshire 443 (Guest 197, Borthwick 4-25, Raine 3-80)
Durham 364-4 (Lees 171, Bedingham 138, Conners 3-62)
Durham trail by 79 runs
Alex Lees has been a perennial thorn in Derbyshire sides since his Yorkshire days and today added another century to his excellent record against us. Meanwhile, at the other end David Bedingham highlighted his credentials with a beautiful innings. He really is a player of great class, eminently capable of playing international cricket and no doubt coveted by South African selectors.
The two of them put Derbyshire's attack to the sword, with only Sam Conners coming out of the day with his reputation intact. He took three of the four wickets to fall and bowled well. Indeed, when he took two early it looked like being a day of upset, but that partnership of 305 between the two Durham batters changed the game.
Both had gone before the close, to give Derbyshire something ahead of tomorrow, but the dangerous Pretorius was looking good at the close, with the visitors only 79 runs behind.
Well as they played, they were given too many loose deliveries and too much width. Contrast that with Ben Raine, who was again in the wickets because he makes batters play. It is simple, old-fashioned but unsurprisingly effective.
Earlier, Brooke Guest took his innings to 197, the second highest ever by a Derbyshire wicket keeper, before holing out on the boundary. It was a magnificent knock and the morning session was also enlivened by tonkage of high quality by Sam Conners.
I don't understand the modern fixation with bowling short at tailenders, especially one who plays the pull and hook well, like Conners.
Indeed, one over from Carse consisted of six short balls to he and Guest, which must have raised a critical brow, Roger Moore-style, from George Scrimshaw, after the events at Hove.
I still feel that for Derbyshire to really push on next year we need to get Derby wickets more like Chesterfield ones. They are very good for batting and I hope that Pat Brown was given assurances that they will be different when he comes next season. Well as Derbyshire batted, they could easily be 150 to 200 behind on first innings by this time tomorrow, then battling against defeat.
Speaking of next season, I watched David Lloyd play a lovely innings for Glamorgan today, which confirmed that he will be a fine asset to us and a big loss for the Welsh county.
I look forward to him batting in similar style in our colours.
Bonus Derbyshire got 136 more runs . Loss not having bowling attack that has any spearhead. But you can see why Durham are top of the table.
ReplyDeleteAs you say PF, it's the same old story. A magnificent innings by Guest, some effective walloping from Connors but then our bowling was all over the place, allowing Durham to hurtle along at almost six runs an over. It doesn't look as if we will ever take 20 wickets to win a 4 day match with this attack.
ReplyDeleteWe posted a very good total, thanks, largely, to Guest (who, disappointingly, lofted a catch on 197 and missed a double century) and Connors (who seems to have moved up a gear with the bat this season), but then we let Lees and Bedingham score at will.
ReplyDeleteAfter Connors took two quick wickets, I thought we might bowl them out today. However, Lees and Bedingham were both superb in the way they picked off boundaries, pushed ones and twos, and never really looked in trouble. They were so fluent in the way they batted. It almost seemed effortless.
However, we're still in the game. If we can polish off Durham in the morning for a similar score to us, then it's all evens. We then have to bat with aggression and purpose to give them a score to chase, like Sussex did last week at Hove.
I would much rather get beaten in a good game at Queens Park, as against Yorkshire, than watch pretty much any player on show, fill their boots at will at Derby. You can see a big stand coming. The ball never passes the bat and no LBW's tells its own story. The bounce is so true and it doesn't take spin. To be fair to the ground staff, this is an absolute belter, but not much good as a spectacle. Kris
ReplyDeleteI would just love it if we could bowl a line and length. It's really easy you know. I can do it and I'm 55. Why can't a professional do it? It's basics
ReplyDeleteLiam
ReplyDelete