REPORT | Centurion Andersson puts Derbyshire in control

Martin Andersson gave his former team mates a big reminder of his qualities with a career-best century to put Derbyshire firmly in control of the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match against Middlesex at Derby.

The ex-Middlesex all-rounder scored 107 and shared a county record sixth wicket stand of 148 with Luis Reece who made 60 to lift Derbyshire to 472 all out.

Andersson’s memorable day continued when he took a catch and then had Stephen Eskinazi caught behind before Blair Tickner claimed his second wicket to leave the visitors on 101 for 3, 371 runs behind.

Middlesex’s hopes of early wickets slowly evaporated in the hazy sunshine although Andersson looked fortunate to survive an lbw shout when he was beaten by Toby Roland-Jones.

The Middlesex skipper and Dane Paterson both found some swing and seam movement to trouble Andersson and Reece but the pair batted with patience and discipline to frustrate the visitors.

Andersson was made to wait for his 50, facing 12 dot balls on 49, before a thickish outside edge off Ryan Higgins flew to the vacant third man boundary.

Reece had combined watchful defence with calculated aggression and he brought up the 100 stand in style by coming down the pitch to launch Zahar Gohar over long on for six.

He reached his first 50 of the season in the last over of the morning which had emphatically belonged to the hosts with 102 runs coming from 30 overs.

The pair went on after lunch and eclipsed the previous Derbyshire sixth wicket record stand against Middlesex of 130 by Michael Di Venuto and Graeme Welch at Lord’s in 2002 before they were finally parted.

Reece came a long way down the pitch before he was sent back and wicketkeeper Jack Davies scored a direct hit at the bowler’s end to run him out.

Alex Thomson was caught behind playing back to Gohar but Andersson reached an excellent hundred when he cut Nathan Fernandes for his 15th four.

He was warmly applauded by his former team mates who recognised how well he had played when the game was in the balance.

Andersson missed a sweep at Fernandes before both Zak Chappell and Blair Tickner fell to catches in the deep leaving Middlesex to score 323 to avoid the follow-on.

By now, the clouds had rolled in and Reece found some swing to take Stephen Eskinazi’s outside edge but the ball dropped just in front of first slip.

Tickner made the breakthrough when Fernandes failed to get over a drive and sliced to gully where Andersson made no mistake and the all-rounder then had Eskinazi caught down the legside off a glove with the total on 57.

Middlesex lost the in-form Max Holden when Tickner got one to straighten and there was more concern for the visitors before the close.

Former Derbyshire batter Leus Du Plooy had been struggling after he was struck a painful blow on the right foot by a Reece yorker and had to retire hurt on 10 towards the end of a day which belonged to Derbyshire and Andersson.

Derbyshire all-rounder Martin Andersson said: “A very good day, it was a nice one. It’s nice to have gone away and done my best, worked on my game and to do it against your old club, I guess there’s a nice feeling about that.

“It was really hard to score pretty much from the off. All the way through the day they bowled great areas and we were scoring at less than three an over for most of it. I came in against the second new ball and it was hard work last night and this morning.

“We said at the beginning of the day the plan was to bat as long as possible together so it’s nice when it comes off. Luis (Reece) is nice and calm to bat with which is very helpful.”