Hants Attack Toils as Derbyshire Partnership Helps Secure Draw
Dan Redfern scored a First Class career-best 133
Report from day four of Hampshire's LV= County Championship match against Derbyshire at The Ageas Bowl
hampshire v Derbyshire
LV= County Championship
Day Four: Saturday 12 May 2012
The Ageas Bowl
Summary: Match Drawn
Hampshire: 352-8d
Derbyshire: 403-9d
Scorecard
Concurrent Table
Hampshire Team
Adams*, Dawson, Shafayat, Katich, Vince, Ervine, Terry, Bates+, Ali, Tomlinson, Balcombe
Derbyshire Team
Guptill, Borrington, Durston, Madsen, Redfern, Whiteley, Wainwright, Clare, Poynton, Palladino, Groenewald
A fourth wicket partnership of 178 between Wes Durston (121) and Dan Redfern (133) helped Derbyshire claim a hard-fought draw, despite a promising start to the day’s play for Hampshire in this LV= County Championship match at The Ageas Bowl.
Redfern, in particular, stuck around for most of the day to frustrate the home attack, making a First Class career-best score on his side’s way to recording 403-9 in response to Hampshire’s first innings total (declared overnight) of 352-8.
Despite a frustrating day, one positive to take from the match was the continued good form in the slips of Liam Dawson. His three catches took him to fifty in First-Class competition and leaves him as the country's current leading outfield catcher with 13.
Hampshire take seven bonus points from the match (four for batting, three for bowling) as well as three for the draw. They now go into next week's match against Derbyshire's new fellow league leaders Yorkshire at Headingley in sixth place in the table.
After a strong innings on day three, home captain Jimmy Adams was clearly keen to try to force the result (making up for rain on days one and two) and, accordingly, declared on 352-8. He, like many in the ground, presumably hoped that two forfeited innings thereafter would give the visitors a decent total to chase and therefore something of a spectacle for the crowd in the South coast sunshine.
But Derbyshire weren’t playing ball. Electing to bat their first innings, clearly chasing five bonus points rather than 16 for the win, Hampshire had no choice other than to try to bowl their opponents out cheaply twice in order to get a win.
And, unlikely though that might have been, the opening 10 overs certainly started to make some believe. The early wicket of Paul Borrington for just four runs was the start the hosts were hoping for; a low diving catch for Dawson off Kabir Ali (3-60) seeing the visitors one down inside the first 15 minutes of the day. The dismissal brought in skipper Wayne Madsen who got of the mark quickly with a well struck four through point.
But three overs later James Tomlinson (3-101) was also in the wickets, getting Martin Guptill (4) after a smartly taken catch by Simon Katich. Durston, the new man in, found his feet quickly, getting 19 runs in his first 3 overs. Ali and Dawson then linked up again to dismiss the visitor’s captain for just 8 runs.
Click on the image above to see highlights of this day's play
The midlanders were in no man’s land and desperately needed something to steady their ship. Fortunately, for them, Durston was now starting to look completely at home in the crease as he built a steady partnership with Redfern. The pair grew in confidence with Durston’s 50 and Derbyshire’s 100 coming up just before the break, the team going into lunch on 127-3.
After the restart an early lbw shout against Durston was turned down. That would have been the boost Hampshire needed to turn their luck around but the 31 year old then continued to bat with intention and he soon reached his century with Redfern following up with his 50 soon after.
By now the match was drifting away from Hampshire and celebrations were notably muted when Sean Ervine (1-39) knocked back the centurion's middle and off-stump, Derbyshire 215-4.
Redfern would sweep a four to bring up his century but by the time he fell (caught and bowled by Tomlinson) it was barely noticed.
By that time we were into the afternoon session and the only question was whether Derbyshire would be bowled out or reach 400 and that final batting point that clearly meant so much to them. They would have been pleased to get it in the 88th over of the day but having, by this point, passed Hampshire's total it was now clear that, with more adventure they could have taken the win.
Catch Up
Words: Will Rimell
Images: NJM Photographs
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