Derbyshire beaten by Durham

Derbyshire fell to an innings defeat to Durham, despite Matt Lamb’s 99 and Luis Reece’s 66 not out on Day Three. 

Derbyshire halted Durham’s push for victory in the morning session of day three as Lamb and Reece put on 149 for the sixth wicket. Lamb fell agonisingly short of a century when he was pinned lbw by Ben Raine for 99.

The wicket opened the floodgates for Durham and Matt Potts as the England seamer tore through the lower order to secure the four remaining scalps, ending with figures of five for 65, allowing the hosts to claim maximum points from the fixture. As a result, Durham extended their lead at the top of Division Two, while Derbyshire sit bottom after three games.

After losing 15 wickets on day two, Derbyshire skipper Leus du Plooy insisted that his side needed to show fight, and Lamb and Luis Reece defied the Durham attack with a solid approach in the morning session. Lamb cleared the rope twice amid short bowling from the hosts as he worked his way towards his half-century for the ninth time in his first-class career.

Durham could not halt the run rate and the Derybshire batters whittled down the deficit to 69 at the lunch break. Lamb was positioned 13 runs shy of his century before lunch, but quickly added two further boundaries to put himself on the brink of a deserved hundred. However, Lamb was denied three figures in agonising fashion as Raine pinned the right-hander lbw for 99, ending a stand of 149 for the sixth wicket. It was the wicket that would spark a collapse in the Derbyshire rearguard.

One wicket became two when Zak Chappell got himself in an almighty tangle attempting to play a short ball from Potts and somehow deflected the ball onto his stumps. Potts’ aggression with the short ball tormented the Derbyshire lower order as Mark Watt took several blows to the body before he eventually fended the ball to Graham Clark.

The Potts-Clark combination was at work again as Sam Conners fell for a first-ball duck to allow Durham to close in on victory. Reece reached fifty for the second time in the game, but was again left stranded as Potts ensured that his home side would not have to bat again, castling Ben Aitchison to secure his seventh five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

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