Derbyshire bowled out cheaply

At the County Ground in Derby, Derbyshire struggled to build partnerships in the first innings of their match against the touring Sri Lankans who only had a chance to put three on the board before the end of play.

Opening bowlers Lungley and Dean bowled four overs before stumps, of which three were maidens, summing up a slow, and low, scoring day.

As play began in the morning, Derbyshire’s openers, Steve Stubbings and Chris Taylor, both took excessive time to play themselves in, not helping the day’s overall scoring-rate.

Lasith Malinga managed to remove both of the openers, though: he bowled Taylor for a sluggish 34 made in over two hours and then, with the aid of Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, Stubbings was soon on his way back to the pavilion with an even lower strike-rate – he’d added just 43 runs in 171 minutes.

Travis Birt, who has a first class average of 35, fell to the same bowler with just four runs to his name.

What followed could only be described as a complete middle-order collapse with just one member of the middle-order contributing in double-figures.

Hassan Adnan was run out for 12; Ant Botha, a South-African overseas player, was caught behind off the bowling of Muralitharan for 3; Welch made 2 in half-an-hour before becoming Muralitharan’s second victim having been trapped LBW.

Pipe, Derbyshire’s wicketkeeper, made 15 before being castled by the off-spinner, leaving the home-side’s lower-order exposed.

When Sheikh was run out for six, Derbyshire didn’t look to stand a chance of getting over 200 but valiant efforts from Gray and Lungley, batting at nine and ten respectively, made 29 and 27.

Lungley remained not out as number-eleven Dean departed for a seventh-ball duck having been given out LBW to Zoysa.

Derbyshire ended the day on 219 all out but unless Sri Lanka can improve the run-rate tomorrow, the match, already, seems to be heading for a draw.

Derbyshire 219
Steve Stubbings 43, Chris Taylor 34
Lasith Malinga 3/59, Muttiah Muralitharan 3/47

Sri Lanka 3-0
Michael Vandort 3