Hants Still in with a Shout After Shafayat's Half Century

Report from day three of Hampshire's LV= County Championship match against Derbyshire at Derby

Derbyshire v Hampshire
LV= County Championship
Day Three: thursday 13 September
County Ground, Derby

Summary: Overnight Hampshire lead Derbyshire by 139 runs
with four wickets remaining in the second innings
Hampshire: 272 & 142-6
Derbyshire: 275
Scorecard

Derbyshire Team
Madsen*, Khawaja, Durston, Borrington, Redfern, Whiteley, Wainwright, Poynton+, Palladino, Groenewald, Turner
Hampshire Team
Carberry, Adams*, Shafayat, Dawson, Vince, Ervine, Griffiths, Bates†, Wood, Balcombe, Tomlinson

An unbeaten half century from Hampshire batsman, Bilal Shafayat (52*) kept his side in with a chance of victory on day three of this LV= County Championship match against Derbyshire, but the visitors will have to contend with a team buoyed by the knowledge that they are already promoted when they resume first thing in the morning.

The hosts were officially confirmed as up following stumps at the County Ground as Kent lost their match away to Glamorgan by seven wickets. However, they will almost certainly still be going for the win that would see them go up as Champions of Division Two here.

And, having been bowled out for 275 earlier today - a lead of just three runs on the first innings – the hosts certainly gave themselves a chance of doing that, reducing Hampshire to 142-6 by the close of play – a lead of 139.

Jimmy Adams’ side, meanwhile have the protection of their fourth-placed spot still to play for, though they cannot now finish any higher than that.

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Having gone in overnight trailing by 104 runs, Derbyshire would have been hoping their “in” man, Usman Khawaja, was able to push on to swing this otherwise very even match in their favour. So it was to Hampshire’s huge early advantage that, before scoring, Sean Ervine (3-25) made the Australian International his third victim (at the expense of just 18 runs so far), caught behind for 71; Derbyshire 170-6.

It was worth noting, at this juncture, that bonus points were very important to the hosts in this match as two for batting (added to their three for bowling) would ensure that, should they win, they would finish the season at the top of Division Two. But before they could bring up the first of those David Wainwright would clip James Tomlinson (3-65) to the slips and Derbyshire were quite literally under assault when David Balcombe (2-68) crashed a bouncer right into the badge on the front of Ross Whiteley’s helmet.

However, by this stage, they did, at least, have the comfort of 200 runs under their belt and the first of those additional points. And home spirits would raise further when birthday boy, Whiteley would reach his 50 with a quarter of an hour to go until lunch. If only they could have reached the break without further loss, Derbyshire, you would suspect, would have considered that not a bad session.

Hampshire hadn’t read the script, however, and with six balls to go Michael Carberry was given his first over of part-time off-spin of the season. And with his second ball, Tom Poynton paddled to Adams at leg slip, Derbyshire going in on 254-8 – still trailing by 18.

Within half an hour of the re-start, the tail had been cleaned up with some help from the new ball, leaving us pretty much exactly back where we’d started.

So it was up to Hampshire to set up a competitive run-chase and keep things interesting for Yorkshire and Kent elsewhere. But two wickets in four balls didn’t help their cause as Hants quickly fell to 16-2. And when Liam Dawson (16) also fell with his side not yet through 50 it was left to Shafayat and first-innings centurion, James Vince to pick their team up.

This they did, taking Hampshire to 68-3 by tea and, with the partnership just nine runs short of a half-century it looked like the duo might be set. But Vince (26) looped one back up to his bowler, Wainwright, and another burgeoning stand was also interrupted when Ervine (20) was trapped lbw in Whiteley’s first over with the ball.

All the while, Shafayat was quietly accumulating as those around him played their shots and despite losing yet another partner, he would ensure the visitors ended the day on a high, exquisitely cover driving a sixth four of a 142-ball innings to the rope to bring up his hard-earned half-century.

Hampshire finished the day with Shafayat (52*) and Chris Wood (2*) at the crease, both men looking to rain on Derbyshire’s parade.

Catch Up:

Preview:	Derbyshire Hold Final Test for Hants
Day One:	Centurion Vince Sets Hampshire on the Way
Day Two:	Ervine Wickets Keep Things Even in Derby

Keep Up:

Live Text Cricket Updates	Get updates sent to your phone by texting "Follow @HantsCricket" to 86444 (see link for more details)
TV Coverage	Sky Sports 1
Online Ball-by-Ball Commentary	BBC Radio Derby

Words: Simon Vincent
Images: LMI Photography

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