Lancashire 458 (Balderson 73, Bell 57, Hartley 42, Aitchison 3-87)
Derbyshire 112-4 (Came 31, Anderson 2-24)
Derbyshire trail by 346 runs
Lancashire continue to accumulate throughout the day at a steady scoring rate that remained below three an over for the whole innings. There didn't appear a great deal in the pitch, although the bowlers chipped away.
458 all out by tea on the second day shouldn't have been too great a concern and it didn't appear that way when Lloyd and Jewell set off at a rate of knots. Jewell played four delightful boundary strokes and looked in good touch before being bowled by Anderson, from around the wicket. I think it straightened a little, but he also played down the wrong line, which didn't help. He earlier took a blinding catch at short extra, but it wasn't his day with the bat.
Lloyd was discomforted by several short balls by Anderson, but was given out caught behind from one that appeared to brush his chest, rather than anything important. The fact that the video didn't subsequently appear on the Lancashire X feed suggests that it was a decision made on the volume of appeal, rather than with eyes and common sense. He got a rough deal, in my opinion.
Nor did Madsen last long, well caught off a thin edge by Hurst when attempting to cut Hartley. Derbyshire were being assertive, certainly more so than their hosts, yet they were losing wickets, which as Bazball has more recently showed us, isn't always the best of tactics.
Came and Guest restored a semblance of normality to proceedings, before the advent of the centurion, Wells saw the former bowled by a googly that he left, clearly not reading it.
Thankfully Guest remained until the close and Morley, the night watchman, lent stoic support.
Much more will be required and the fighting spirit that has typified the season will be needed tomorrow.
Speaking of which, I will be making an early morning drive down to Manchester to see see the remainder of this game. If any regular readers are down there, please let me know and it would be lovely to meet up.
We missed Luis Reece as a bowler during the Lancashire innings as he gives the variety.
ReplyDeleteDavid Lloyd is going through one of those spells where he keeps finding a way to get out. If you watch the YouTube replay around 5:35:00 ish it appears to go from his chest onto his bat.
Being a test match ground the pitch would have been prepared to last five days so should last the four days of a County Championship game without too many demons so plenty of runs should be available to at least get a draw.
I agree, David. We need a left armer for that variety as the attack is otherwise too similar.
DeleteI thought it hit his chest then forearm, but the bottom line is the scorecard shows out. These things tend to even out over a season
And I agree, there's batters to come and if we avoid the follow on, the game is fast running out of time.
I don’t like being negative but bowling first was a mistake, especially when our solid batting has been our strength this season. Being 346 behind with 6 wickets in hand, getting a draw will be a challenge and will need someone to make a big hundred. Come on Derbyshire you can do it....
ReplyDeleteWe have a mountain to climb. If we escape with a draw I shall be surprised. Win the toss and bat first!
ReplyDeleteAs WG once said.if it looks a good batting wkt bag first if not sure .cou t to 10
DeleteMeant bat count to 10 and still bat
DeleteI agree with chapel guy.Get runs on the board and create scoreboard pressure.We have struggled to bowl sides out for a good few seasons now so we need to be on the front foot from the off.Topspinner.
ReplyDeleteI think we will still manage a draw reasonably comfortably. Jewell always looks very good to watch with some beautiful cover drives but he does along with Lloyd appear to be very poor at picking up singles so the bowlers often get 6 balls in a row at the same batsman also although Anderson is still obviously a good bowler he never has been one to scare batters with short pitched bowling but the 3 or 4 he bowled to Lloyd he looked like he was facing Joel Garner. I think he will get quite a lot of short pitch stuff for the rest of the season. Hope you see a good 2 days cricket Steve. It’s too far from Suffolk for me but hopefully see you at a game sometime. I’d like to buy you a pint for your brilliant work on the blog
ReplyDeleteYes, I was surprised how awkward he looked against a bowler of 42. Many thanks for your kind words. Ian, hopefully at some point our paths will cross to have that pint, or a coffee!
DeleteThe two days against Lancs have brought us down to earth. Our bowling's been nothing special, and our top order didn't fire today.
ReplyDeleteCan Guest and the lower order provide the runs tomorrow to avoid a follow on? That is the question.
We will do very well to get a draw from this position we needed early wickets today to keep the score down.
ReplyDeleteI thought before the game we should of batted 1st on this wicket everyone knew be flat and favour batsman. It’s always difficult when team batting 1st get 400+ 1st innings the extra pressure to get safe first. I am not sure Anderson being on team sheet affected the decision making? It’s more likely that Arthur/Madsen think this team best chances winning is always to field 1st looking at Toss statistics this year and last year. It just felt like we missed opportunity.
The team has improved over last 8 months. In a season they will always be disappointing days in a season.