Monday 14th May and despite further traffic problems on the M1 we arrived at Derby just as play was about to commence for the last day of what had been a very high scoring championship game between Derbyshire and Durham. The visitors huge total on Sunday had given them a first innings lead 93 runs. The prospects of another Durham victory, following their success over Leicestershire last week, looked rather remote at the start of the day but as we know all too well from some of the exciting championship games this season things can change rather rapidly.
Change they did indeed following a stubborn opening partnership between the Leeds/Bradford University pair of Ben Slater and Louis Reece. Mark Wood who has returned early from his stint in the IPL with a view to gaining Test selection for England got one to whip through, perhaps keeping a bit low, and clean bowled Reece for 12. Things seemed to be going along nicely for Derby at 88-1 with Slater and Madsen together, but all changed again rather quickly when Wood had the prolific Madsen caught behind by Poynton and Slater caught by Steel to make it 97-3.
Just before lunch the occasional leg spin of Cameron Steel was introduced and he did the trick with the fourth wicket, that of Alex Hughes falling to another Poynton catch. Durham must have been delighted with the first session and another remarkable victory seemed very much on the cards.
Skipper Godleman and Critchley who have both been in good form with the bat this season had other ideas and Critchley in particular scored quickly at the start of the aftenoon session. After an hour's batting he became another caught Poynton bowled Steel victim for 40, which included six fours.
Godleman batted more circumspectly for 25 in about the same time as Critchley before he was caught at slip by Collingwood off the bowling of Weighell, who of course was the hero of last week's win over Leicester. The score now was 185-6 and Derby were almost 100 runs ahead, but Wood had been off the field for a while and it was some time before he came back for another spell.
This was the cue for the entry of the foreign legion in the shape of Derby's three South Africans, Smit, Viljoen and Olivier together with West Indian Ravi Rampaul. They all made significant contributions to the score as the lead slowly increased and the remaining overs began to run out. Wood returned to dismiss all three South Africans eventually but number eleven Rampaul together with the foreign sounding Palladino, who is in fact as English as they come, put on 37 more runs for the last wicket to take the game out of Durham's reach.
Durham's own South African, who has had a short chequered career with the county, ended proceedings by bowling a maiden over, but by then the game had died the death and the players shook hands on a draw. Despite missing out on another victory full credit to Durham for fighting back as they did with Mark Wood's 6-46 the highlight of a fascinating final day's play.
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