Haseeb Hameed has not been included in the England squad for the first Test against New Zealand
| LV= County Championship Division Two, Trent Bridge (Day Four) |
| Derbyshire 260 & 262: Madsen 52; Paterson 3-35 |
| Nottinghamshire 358 & 167-0: Hamed 93*, Slater 64* |
| Nottinghamshire (23 pts) beat Derbyshire (5 pts) by 10 wickets |
| match scorecard |
Nottinghamshire did an impressive job chasing a potentially tricky goal in the fourth innings to complete a 10-wicket win over Derbyshire in the County Championship.
Haseeb Hameed made 93 and Ben Slater 64, the opening players sharing an uninterrupted partnership of 167 to see their team home in a single session – albeit one extended by almost 20 minutes to avoid players being left after had to return for lunch.
Trent Bridge’s side have 23 points but their fourth win in six games was not enough to knock Middlesex off the top of Division Two.
Derbyshire suffered their first defeat under new head coach Mickey Arthur, although they always had a difficult task given their depleted bowling ranks against a strong Nottinghamshire line-up.
Two of the bowlers scheduled to play in that game, Suranga Lakmal and Anuj Dal, retired injured at 11am, Dal not until Thursday morning after the original team sheet was submitted. Another, Luis Reece, suffered a groin injury after bowling fewer than nine overs in the first innings.
Lakmal, the Sri Lankan veteran who signed a two-year deal with the county in the winter after ending an illustrious international career, has an elbow injury which is a cause for concern ahead of the Vitality Blast season which begins in Derbyshire’s fall with a home game against the Birmingham Bears next Friday.
Hameed set a positive tone by sending the first ball of the day through the midwicket for Sam Conners’ four and the batting rate never fell below four runs per over.
The former Lancashire opener, who celebrated his first century of the season against Middlesex at Lord’s last week, had a great stroke of luck at 70 when he hit a ball hard from Nick Potts that went straight through Alex Thomson’s hands as he slipped.
The first 10 of his 12 fours came from largely orthodox shots, but once he hit 50 he wanted to get the job done as quickly as possible and clear the ropes of Thomson’s off-spin on consecutive overs, the first time with a high-flying blow over deep midwicket, the second over the much shorter border in extra coverage.
It was enough to reduce the runs required enough for umpires David Millns and Neil Mallender to delay signaling lunch until the end of the game, with only 24 needed when players would normally have left the field.
Slater, who offered a difficult chance at a short leg from Thomson at 31, was almost calm in comparison, needing 108 balls to pass fifty for the second time this season.
The only frustration for Nottinghamshire was Hameed being unable to go on strike to end a century as Leus Du Plooy rolled over the final and Slater hit two boundaries to put them over the line.
Derbyshire’s fears that their first innings 260 would prove underperforming, even against an attack involving three past and present Test bowlers after being asked to bat first, were deemed well founded when Nottinghamshire posted 358 in response.
With 19-year-old fast bowler Potts again proving to be a promising newcomer, posting a career-best 4-50 in his third top-flight match, they were at least able to get the match into a fourth day.
Nottinghamshire, three unbeaten overnight, might have expected the odd wobble or two in the hunt for 165 wins but were able to saunter home in the end in the face of what can only be described as a disappointing performance from the visitors.
Report provided by the ECB Reporters Network.
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