REPORT & QUOTES | Game ends in draw at Northampton after entertaining four days

Promotion hopefuls Northamptonshire’s hopes of pulling off an historic Championship victory over Derbyshire were denied by bad light and rain.

Chasing 349, which would have been the fifth-highest successful run chase in their first-class history, Northamptonshire were 326 for six, needing 23 more in 22.2 overs, with Ricardo Vasconcelos having led the charge with 132, his sixth century of the season.

George Bartlett was nicely placed on 24 not out off 22 balls, having just hit six, when the umpires took the players off at 4.20pm, the match being declared a draw 90 minutes later.

It means Northants sit four points behind second-place Kent in the Rothesay County Championship table going into next week’s final round of games.

Earlier, with the hosts resuming on 37 without loss, Vasconcelos mounted a 152-run opening stand with Luke Procter (51), the fifth century partnership between the pair this year, in addition to their 97 in the first innings.

Northamptonshire lost three quick wickets after lunch before Vasconcelos was joined by Calvin Harrison (50) in a 78-run partnership to bring the target below 100 by tea. Three further wickets fell after the interval, but Barlett looked in complete control before the umpires called time.

After a nervy final session yesterday, Northants’ openers took the positive route, running hard and keeping up comfortably with the required rate, adding 115 during the morning.

Vasconcelos duly passed 50 for the second time in the match before pulling Nick Potts dismissively and reaching the 1,000-run landmark shortly after while Procter was content to fill the anchor role.

Northamptonshire were handily placed at lunch at 152 without loss, needing 197 more, but lost three wickets for 36 after the interval. Procter was adjudged lbw to Muhammad Abbas, although replays suggested the ball was sliding down leg side.

With Shoaib Bashir finding turn from one end and Abbas beating the bat at the other, Northants found scoring challenging. Derbyshire kept Vasconcelos starved of the strike to target Gus Miller, which dried up scoring further. Four byes off Bashir followed by a Vasconcelos dab down to third off Abbas brought some relief, but Derbyshire made a second breakthrough when Miller chopped onto his stumps against Brett Randell.

Vasconcelos was dropped on 103 when he offered a sharp chance to first slip off Bashir, but Northants lost a third wicket when Zaib smashed an off-cutter from Randell straight back to him.

Harrison cracked Bashir through the covers, while Vasconcelos meted out similar treatment to Randell before taking a single to bring up Northamptonshire’s 200 and, with the target below 150, Vasconcelos and Harrison started to accelerate.

Twenty runs came from the next two overs as Harrison smashed Bashir over cover, before both batters clipped off their legs against the returning Nick Potts. The pair also kept pressure firmly on the fielders by running quickly between the wickets.

Harrison dispatched a short ball from Potts over backward square-leg for six, but scoring slowed as Bashir and part-time spinner Matt Montgomery bowled in tandem, although Harrison struck Bashir over long-on for six.

Resuming on 261 for three after tea, Harrison reached 50 with a cover boundary off Abbas but was bowled next ball by one that nipped back. Vaconcelos, too, was bowled five balls later when tried to cut a Randell nip-backer.

With clouds gathering over the ground and runs at a premium, Sales broke the tension with a boundary over mid-on, while George Bartlett stepped across and whipped Abbas through midwicket. The pair also played some wild shots which fell just short of fielders.

Sales pulled Abbas through midwicket and carved through cover, forcing Derbyshire to take the defensive route, dropping all their fielders back on the boundary.

Sales chopped onto his stumps against Abbas, but Bartlett looked set as he swung Martin Andersson over cow-corner for six, going past 4,000 career first-class runs.

Derbyshire men’s Head of Cricket Mickey Arthur said: “It’s kind of a bit of a hollow feeling because this morning I thought we’d bowl them out. I thought they played really well. Vasconcelos and Proctor were very good, and set the base up, and then obviously as the day progressed, we knew there was a bit of rain coming in, so we obviously tried then, when we felt we couldn’t get over the line, to get the draw points. Not how we want to play, not how we like to play, but it was inevitable today.

“When we took the second new ball, that was of course our intention [to take wickets to try to win the game], and we did get a couple of wickets there, but then it got really dark, and we knew that we were going to come off for light if we ever got within a whiff of bowling them out, so then it was a matter of just kind of defending our lead, if you like.

“You don’t play to draw, and we’ll never, ever play to draw. But it’s a damn sight better than losing. So, we protected our lead and did what we thought was important to us in terms of coming away with the draw points.

[Looking at this game as a whole, were you pleased with the way you played on the back of the performance against Kent last week] “It’s kind of bittersweet because it’s kind of how we’ve played all year. I think Northamptonshire’s a very, very good cricket team. You can see why they’re very close to being where they are, at the top of the table. I thought they played some really good cricket.

“But I thought so did we. I mean, Wayne Madsen’s 100 was outstanding. Ben Aitchison, another 100, brilliant. You know, I thought Martin Andersson, another very, very good innings from him. I thought Nick Potts when he came in as the injury sub, did a really good job for us.

“So yeah, there was a lot of positives to take from it. But again, it’s doing those positive things for longer. And we were almost on the back foot in terms of the game all the time, because we didn’t really get top-order runs. We were three down a lot of the time, and you have to do that in order to push for victories. But I did think that we got ourselves in with a chance. Coming into the ground today, I thought we were 55-45 favourites to get the win, but as I say, they played exceptionally well.

[On Mohammed Abbas not taking more wickets] “We’ve got some bowler there. I keep saying to him, I think he’s bowling international balls. He needs to bowl first-class balls because a lot of the time he just beats the edges. He’s a phenomenal performer. He really is and his contribution has been exceptional. I can’t wait to have him for the full season because he’s quality, and we know his quality. I mean, nearly a 1,000 first-class wickets now, man of the Test series, and yeah, he just keeps churning them out, and we need him to get a big bag now for Derbyshire. That would be good.

[On the final game against Worcestershire] “As I always say, we want to finish with five wins for the season, definitely. Although when I assess it, I think it’s a season of lost opportunity for us. I think we’ve got ourselves in games all the time, and just not finished them off. And I mean, one just casts your mind back to all those games where we haven’t got across the line, and if only we did, we’d be competing right at the top of the table now.”