REPORT | Heroic Dal innings secures draw at Old Trafford

A defiant innings from Anuj Dal secured Derbyshire an important draw at Old Trafford to keep the side unbeaten after six rounds of County Championship action.

In the morning session, Lancashire had declared 184 for seven, thereby challenging Derbyshire to score 328 in 88 overs for victory. Harry Came made 63 as the visitors chased this target but after reaching tea on 165 for five, Derbyshire’s batters settled for the draw.

The visitors’ heroes were Anuj Dal, who faced 114 balls for 13 not out and Jack Morley, who was unbeaten on nought after 36 balls when the game ended. Anderson finished with two for 25 from 16 overs and Hartley two for 38 from 20.5.

Despite remaining winless after six games, Lancashire take 13 points from the match, meaning that they move off the bottom of the Division Two table, whereas Derbyshire’s 11 points keeps them in second place.

In the morning session, Lancashire scored 43 runs off six overs before declaring on 184 for seven. The only home batter dismissed was George Balderson, who was caught at third man by Martin Andersson off Blair Tickner for nine, but Matthew Hurst was 56 not out when Harris called his batters in.

Derbyshire’s pursuit of 329 began poorly when Caleb Jewell played too early at a slower ball from Anderson and chipped a catch at Tom Bailey at mid-on.

However, the Lancashire bowler returned figures of 6-1-17-1 in his first spell and following Jewell’s dismissal for 12, David Lloyd and Harry Came guided their side to 78 for one after 20 overs at lunch. By that interval, both batters were batting fluently and the visitors were up with the required run rate.

But any optimism among the visiting supporters was dampened four balls after the resumption when Anderson trapped David Lloyd lbw for 30. Undaunted, Came and the new batter, Wayne Madsen, saw off Anderson’s spell (4-2-4-1) and had added 50 in 16 overs before Madsen tickled Bailey down the leg side and was caught by Hurst for 17.

By that stage, Came has reached his third fifty of the season off 72 balls, most of them pedigree strokes, but Brooke Guest could not match his partner’s fluency and was bowled round his legs for two when trying to sweep Hartley, who was bowling over the wicket, partly with the aim of achieving such a dismissal.

Four overs later, Hartley struck again when he took the vital wicket of Came, the Derbyshire batter pushing uncertainly forward and giving a catch to George Bell at short leg when he had made 63. That left Derbyshire on 151 for five with 44 overs still to be bowled.

By tea the visitors had reached 165 for five and it soon became clear that Derbyshire’s batters had abandoned all thoughts of victory. Anderson bowled three uneventful overs, Hartley wheeled away from over the wicket from the Brian Statham end.

Over an hour into the evening session, Lancashire took their sixth wicket when Josh Bohannon induced Martin Andersson to drive a full toss straight to Keaton Jennings at short extra cover and Andersson’s dismissal for 43 was followed two overs later by a second success for Bohannon when Zak Chappell gave him a return catch.

That left Derbyshire on 212 for seven with 18 overs to be bowled and Tom Bailey struck the next blow when he had Ben Aitchison lbw for nought with 65 balls left in the game. After 80 overs Lancashire took the new ball and Anderson had four overs to take the wickets that would seal victory. But Dal and Morley resisted him successfully.

Derbyshire Head of Cricket, Micky Arthur, said: “It was tense stuff but we kind of put that on ourselves because over the four days we weren’t accurate enough with any of our skills. I thought we were a little bit off the pace with all our standards and I think we’ve probably got away with one through some really gritty batting by our tailenders.

“They’ve kept us afloat but we’ll take that because I think it shows there’s a lot of resilience, a lot of spirit, a lot of belief in our dressing room. But we have to be more accurate, we have to execute better and we have to get big first innings scores.

“We arrived at the ground this morning thinking we were going to win this game, we were going to give it a real good crack. But on a wicket like that they have a lot of quality and we saw that Hartley can shut the game down very quickly by bowling into the rough.

“But we owed it to ourselves to have a go and there were some positive signs. But none of our players got hundreds and we need to get back to doing that.”