Anti-climas as Derbyshire v Glamorgan is abandoned

The 2017 season at Derby ended in anti-climax after the final day of the Division Two match between Derbyshire and Glamorgan was abandoned before the scheduled start.
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Rain throughout the night and early morning left the outfield too wet for the prospect of any play so the teams settled for a draw with Derbyshire taking six points and Glamorgan eight.

The game had already been badly hit by rain which washed out the first two days and the only play on day three saw Derbyshire reach 236 for 9 with Luis Reece top scoring with 53 and Lukas Carey taking three wickets.

Glamorgan’s head coach Robert Croft said: “The outfield has been the problem. In this game it looks like it’s taken a lot of wear and tear, it doesn’t drain that well and that’s the reason we’ve not been able to get on.

“But at least the bowlers did get a run-out because our seamers have been in T20 mode and I thought we bowled well in patches.

“I think that’s as well as I’ve seen Lukas bowl this season. He bowled two good spells, he moved the ball in the air and was unlucky not to get a five wicket haul.”

Derbyshire are still looking for a first home County Championship victory since September 2014 and skipper Billy Godleman admitted: “It’s disappointing not be out there playing but it’s rained extensively over the last three or four days.

“It feels like a non-entity of a game, it never really got going and it’s finished without starting really.”

Derbyshire have won only one four day match this season but Godleman hopes that they can take advantage of having the option of bowling first in the two remaining away games.

“Starting at 10.30 in September, it’s usually an advantage in the first session to bowl first so if the conditions are bowler-firendly, we can make the most of that.

“We are still confident with three games to go that we can put together performances across four days that will give us a good chance of being on the right end of a result.”

The other frustration for Godleman was not being able to bowl young paceman Will Davis for the first time since late April when he suffered a side injury.in the game against Kent at Canterbury.

“It’s been unfortunate to not have Will on the park for such a big portion of the season,” Godleman said. “But he’s fit now and he’s got three games to run in and bowl as many overs as quickly as he can.”

Derbyshire have one more home game but the match against Kent starting Tuesday September 19th has been moved to Queen’s Park, Chesterfield because there is a pop concert at Derby three days before.