REPORT & QUOTES | Rain ends final day prematurely as Guest scores fifty

Brooke Guest’s unbeaten half-century steered Derbyshire to safety against Middlesex and kept their promotion hopes alive ahead of next week’s vital Rothesay County Championship meeting with Glamorgan.

Guest finished on 65 at Lord’s, having added 66 with Martin Andersson (31 not out) after third-placed Derbyshire had slumped to 87 for four in their second innings, an advantage of 72 over their hosts.

An afternoon downpour brought the contest to a premature close and left Derbyshire 27 points adrift of second-placed Glamorgan, who they host in the penultimate round of Division Two fixtures.

Middlesex, a further three points behind Derbyshire, still retain a slim chance of promotion following the draw, which was also enough to confirm Leicestershire’s elevation to the top flight after 22 years.

The home side’s hopes of forcing a victory were boosted after the opening four overs of the day, in which they captured two wickets to leave Derbyshire three down with a slender lead of 31.

Luis Reece added just five to his overnight 17 before he was given out lbw to a Ryan Higgins delivery that zoomed some way back down the slope and Wayne Madsen soon followed in similar fashion to Toby Roland-Jones.

Guest rode his luck at the start of his innings, with two inside edges off Higgins (two for 49) that zipped just past the stumps and rolled to the rope, as well as surviving a persuasive lbw appeal by Olly Stone to a ball that kept low.

The England paceman, in the first of a two-match loan from Nottinghamshire, was unlucky not to gain greater reward for an impressive pre-lunch spell, although he did remove Harry Came with a beauty that cannoned in to send middle stump flying.

Having given away just six runs in his first eight overs, Stone conceded the same from one short-pitched delivery after the interval as Andersson pulled him into the Mound Stand to stretch Derbyshire’s lead to three figures.

A brief rain stoppage with Guest on 47 could not derail the Derbyshire wicketkeeper, who punched Stone through the covers for four to complete a fifth half-century of the campaign soon after play resumed.

Although Guest got away with a mistimed pull off Higgins that looped up and fell to safety, his work was already done and the dark clouds menacing the ground duly unloaded an hour into the afternoon session to confirm a stalemate.

Derbyshire Head of Cricket, Mickey Arthur said: “I’m very pleased with the overall performance, frustrated though that we didn’t get four good days of cricket. I like games where 300 is about par and I think we would have had the upper hand going into day four where the wicket’s starting to go up and down.

“We felt we’d played some really good cricket over the first two days. But coming into the last day, with yesterday rained out, there was probably only one side that could win it – and it wasn’t us.

“Brooke Guest was outstanding, I thought that was a really good innings under pressure when we’d lost a couple of wickets. Then Martin Andersson came in and played exceptionally well – much like he’s played all year. His tempo with the bat was outstanding.

“It was really good to eventually come away even-stevens and we take everything into the Glamorgan game next week. We win, we keep it alive until the very last game of the season – if we don’t, our dream’s probably over.”