Lancashire v Derbyshire day three

Lancashire 458 and 141-6 (Wells 50, Hurst 42*, Morley 3-32)

Derbyshire 314 (Guest 77, Aitchison 45, Morley 41, Anderson 3-53, Hartley 3-68)

Lancashire lead by 285 runs

My 5.30am departure from home should have got me to Old Trafford soon after nine today. Yet thanks to the Great Manchester Run and road closures with no suggestion of how to circumvent them, it was nearer ten before I pulled in to the car park. It was perversely reassuring to find many others had faced similar frustrations, from their accents more conversant with the locale than I...

Old Trafford is much changed from the last time I saw a game here, which was 1980, the Barlow era, Peakfan in his student days with shoulder-length hair and plenty on the top. Changed days indeed and the square is turned around too, just to further boggle my brain after driving around half the local streets with even Google Maps struggling to compute.

The ground is an impressive sight and a walk around it showed the view to be excellent from pretty much anywhere. The press box is also very good, as one might expect for an international ground, pleasantly cool and with a marvellous view behind the bowler's arm. Only the lack of sound from the middle detracted from perfection, but only the churlish would insist that fine work hasn't been done here.

Morley and Guest did well for an hour and a half, two men with points to prove around these parts. Morley's battle with Hartley was enjoyable, the former adhering to the Denis Smith school of thought, as told to Edwin Smith when he faced other off spinners - 'You bowl it, you should be able to play it'. 

Jack did well and played some good strokes amid resolute defence, before being dismissed by the lively Balderson, the best of the home bowlers. The fielders were chirpy and not reluctant to appeal, yet often with little reason. Andersson, after a golden run with the bat, departed quickly for a duck and Derbyshire were in trouble.

Guest remained resolute, sound in technique and with a fine range of strokes when opportunity presented itself. A hooked six, just over the head of long leg, was his closest call but while he remained there was hope of avoiding the follow on. Dal's innings promised much but came to a tame end with a mistimed cut against Hartley and when Guest's vigil finally ended on 77 to Bohannon' occasional and gentle off spin, the follow on writing appeared to be on the wall.

And yet once again the tail wagged for Derbyshire. Chappell and Aitchison added 68 runs for the ninth wicket, despite being liberally peppered with short stuff from Phillip and Anderson. Chappell was struck on the helmet as the follow on target drew ever nearer, before Aitchison, with two sixes and a four from Wells, took them to within touching distance. 

Then Chappell lobbed another short delivery to short leg and Tickner, 'The Man for the Crisis', came in with five needed. He too was struck by Anderson, but an edged four and a spanking cover drive, advancing down the pitch, took his side past the follow on and his season average to 34, before Aitchison holed out on the boundary. It  was a top effort by Ben and he has enjoyed a memorable return. It is worthy of note that the major runs today all came from Lancastrians...

Wells and Jennings set off aggressively, as was expected, as the home side really needs to be bowling again before lunch tomorrow. There were some stylish strokes before Jennings upper cut Tickner straight to the safe hands of Andersson at third man. The Derbyshire field was set deep to slow the run rate and it was stifled with the advent of Bohannon, who lost patience and was very well held by Chappell from the bowling of Morley, who has had a good match here. When the prolific Harris had his average slashed, courtesy of a fine ball by Aitchison and even better catch by Guest, Lancashire had to regroup. 

Wells led this, as he did in the first innings and made an excellent fifty before being bowled by Morley. This heralded a late flurry of wickets, Morley taking a routine caught and bowled before Lloyd held a 'worldie' to dismiss the bemused Hartley off his own bowling.

All results are possible going into tomorrow, but I struggle to see a Derbyshire win here. There would be no shame in going home with a draw and while it is possible to bat here, problems tend to come when forcing the run rate. 

Much will depend on the last four home wickets. I suspect they would ideally want to set 360-plus and may or may not get there.

Intriguing stuff and tomorrow should be worth a watch.