Day three began in different conditions to those experienced on day two as players were greeted with cloudy and much cooler temperates at Emirates Durham ICG.
Durham took a 348 run lead into the third day with Keaton Jennings and Will Smith unbeaten on 65 and 13 respectively with the pair continuing to add runs early in the morning until Smith became Derbyshire’s first wicket of the day, knicking a wide delivery through to the keeper to depart for 22 with the Durham lead 378.
Keaton Jennings continued to dominate the Derbyshire attack as he made his way through the nervous nineties to record his first Championship century in the second hour of the morning to go with his 93 from the first innings.
The opener who recently turned 21 put together a poised and composed maiden 100 which came off 247 balls and included 10 boundaries.
Durham then lost several wickets before the lunch break with Ben Stokes the first to go, making 8 before he edged to second slip with Clare getting his second wicket and Durham 254-4.
Shorly after Wainwrigth snared two wickets, getting Richardson for 14 and bowling Mustard for 1 to leave Durham 293-6.
Five overs later and just three balls before the lunch break Gareth Breese chopped on off the bowling of Redern to give him his second wicket leaving Durham 306-7 with a lead of 446 with Jennings unbeaten on 122no.
It wasn’t long after lunch that Jennings’ innings came to an end after being run out by Groenewald. He finished on 123 and with his 93 from the first innings he accumulated 216 runs for Durham in the match.
Mark Wood and Callum Thorp then added a further 21 runs before Wood went lbw to Redfern for 10 and Durham declared 331-9 with a lead of 471.
Durham had to wait until 10 overs into the Derbyshire second innings to get their first wicket but got the start they wanted when Ben Stokes ripped through opener Johnson, tearing out his stumps to get the ball rolling.
Callum Thorp then got in on the action when he dismissed Madsen for 1 with the Derbyshire captain edging to Phil Mustard behind the stumps.
The next over Stokes claimed his second for the innings with Michael Richardson taking a good catch in the slips to dismiss Hughes for 10 leaving Derbyshire 20-3.
Five overs later, first innings star Chris Rushworth claimed his seventh match wicket when he trapped Thurston lbw for 5 and Durham were looking ruthless with the ball. Rushworth then carried on with the wickets when he got Redern to edge to Gareth Breese at second slip with the visitors 49-5.
Just when it looked like the match could end on the afternoon of day three Derbyshire’s Chanderpaul and Poynton provided the resistance compiling a 98 run stand to frustrate the Durham attack.
It was man of the moment Rushworth who finally got the breakthrough as Chanderpaul edged through to Mustard to depart on 76 and break the partnership with an hour to play in day three.
Poynton 56no and Clare 2no batted out the day to see Derbyshire finish 181-7, still trailing by 291 runs with Durham needing 3 wickets tomorrow to take them to top to the Championship table.