By Jon Steer
July 25 2005

Durham had to settle for a draw against bottom of the league Derbyshire as rain stopped play at lunchtime on the fourth day. Durham were set a target of 330 and had reached 93-2 when the rain started. Durham will look back on this as an opportunity missed. When Mike Hussey asked Derbyshire to follow on with a first innings deficit of 210 he could not have foreseen having to chase a target in excess of 300. It was the first time in three years that Derbyshire had passed 500 runs in an innings.

Noffke injured his back in the first innings and was unable to bowl at all in the follow-on. Hussey obviously thought that the other bowlers could do the job well enough to go for the kill. A safer option would have been to bat again and give Derbyshire a total to chase on the final day where the reduced attack would have had more help from a deteriorating pitch.

With Lancashire also help to a draw, albeit high scoring Durham still have a twelve point lead at the top of the second division. Durham travel to Somerset this week and are likely to take Michael Lewis as a replacement for Ashley Noffke. Lewis impressed as a stand in earlier in the season and has said that he would like to play for Durham again.