MATCH REPORT: Derbyshire in the runs on rain-shortened day
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Mitch Stanley and James Anderson took a wicket apiece on a rain-shortened second day of this Rothesay County Championship match at Emirates Old Trafford as Derbyshire closed on 235-3, trailing by 116 runs.
Resuming their first innings on 0-1 and thus behind by 351 runs, Derbyshire duo Harry Came and Matt Montgomery produced a determined, defiant partnership in the face of some good, accurate bowling from the Red Rose attack either side of a couple of small stoppages for rain and some advertising boards being blown across the pitch.
Both Anderson and Stanley beat the bat with some regularity, but the hard luck story of the day went to Red Rose debutant Paul Coughlin who saw Came dropped twice off his bowling, the first at midwicket when on 12, and later at first slip when the batsman had progressed to 54.
The visitors had rather crept to 64-1 by lunch off 29 overs, although Came and Montgomery produced some nice strokes as they extended their alliance to 95 after the break. Stanley made a much-needed breakthrough during a fiery six-over spell in the early afternoon with a mixture of fast, short deliveries allied to some cleverly pitched up deliveries.
And the Lancashire quick was rewarded with the wicket of Montgomery after the visitors new signing from Notts pulled a bouncer for six over midwicket before edging the following ball – a another pitched-up rocket – to Coughlin for 46.
Having reached a 120-ball fifty, Came had progressed steadily after surviving that second dropped chance to reach 83 before he chopped on to Anderson.
But these proved to be the only successes for the hosts as Brooke Guest and Martin Andersson calmly steered Derbyshire to 187-3 at tea before rain held up play for one and half hours. The pair then accelerated the scoring through a final 14-over evening session, Andersson – a double centurion last week – playing some attractive strokes in making an unbeaten 37 off 52 balls and Guest a more measured 60 not out, reaching his half century from 111 balls.
The new ball is six overs away and looks like it might be key in determining how this game progresses tomorrow.
“We looked at the game at the start of the day and being put in and getting 351, I think you've got to be happy with that,” said Paul Coughlin who is making his Lancashire debut in this match.
“We felt we probably left a few out there, but still in a pretty good position.
“I think they've played pretty well. We've put a few chances down, which doesn't help, but there's still plenty of runs for them to chase here to get ahead of us. So, I still think we're in a pretty good position, if I'm honest.
“We felt we bowled well and on another day, you might pick up three or four in that session and then you're in a much stronger position. But that's cricket and sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't.
“The new ball is such a big thing in all games of cricket, but I think with this wicket especially, once the ball went soft, it just didn't react the same off the surface. It's such a key period of the game, that new ball.
“How we bowled this morning with the newer, harder ball, I think if we can get the new ball in the morning and create the same chances, I think we're probably due a few.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Luke Adams, Dan Adams
