A new feature for County Championship games throughout the 2023 season will be to dive back in to the archives and take a look back at a previous game against our next opposition. This week Steve Blades goes back to Derbyshire in 2019.
Durham v Derbyshire at Chester-le-Street June 3-6, 2019
Durham won by 29 runs
Durham 293 and 242. Derbyshire 268 and 238
Durham 21 points Derbyshire 5 points
Durham started the match having lost their previous six in the Championship. By the end of an attritional first day Durham were 254-8. Alex Lees (63), Jack Burnham (67) and Liam Trevaskis (40) all made starts without going on to more substantial innings. On the second morning Durham were all out and West Indian, Ravi Rampaul finished with 5-77.
On a rain interrupted second day Derbyshire’s first innings followed a similar trajectory as wickets fell regularly but an undefeated 79 from Matt Critchley meant that the visitors only trailed by 25 on first innings. Gareth Harte took 4-15 which were the best bowling figures of his first-class career.
In cool overcast conditions Durham struggled in their second innings. However, Ned Eckersley eventually provided the support that Alex Lees needed. They added 123 for the sixth wicket before Eckersley was dismissed for 52. This prompted a late order collapse, so Derbyshire’s target was 268. Alex Lees carried his bat through the Durham innings and his 107 not out was his first first-class century for Durham. He batted nearly six hours and faced 243 balls.
Derbyshire passed 50 without loss but then stuttered to 96-4 at tea. All results seemed possible. Matt Critchley and Alex Hughes launched a counterattack with the first sustained aggressive batting of the match so that Derbyshire were in a strong position on 181-5. All seemed to be going their way with 34 needed off six overs and 4 wickets remaining but then the match turned dramatically.
Matt Critchley was caught on the boundary by Liam Trevaskis off the bowling of Chris Rushworth for 71. Matthew Potts ran out Harvey Hosein with a direct hit and then Chris Rushworth bowled Logan van Beek. When Ben Raine bowled Tony Palladino the final four wickets had fallen in eight deliveries and a dramatic victory was secured by Durham.