Rain puts paid to any play for Derbyshire on day two

Covers are pictured over the crease due to poor weather prior to the LV= Insurance County Championship match between Derbyshire and Durham at The Incora County Ground on Friday. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Derbyshire and Durham were again frustrated by the weather after day two of the LV=Insurance County Championship match at the Incora County Ground Derby was washed out.

After only 17 overs were possible on the opening day, any chances of making up lost time disappeared in the morning when steady rain and strong winds ruled out any prospect of play.

Following an initial inspection, umpires Tim Robinson and Peter Hartley decided to take lunch at 12.45pm but with no sign of any improvement and with more rain forecast throughout the afternoon, the decision to abandon play for the day was taken shortly after 1pm.

Although the forecast for the weekend is better, it means both teams will struggle to force a victory when the match resumes tomorrow (Saturday) with Derbyshire 48 without loss in their first innings.

Derbyshire's head of cricket Dave Houghton admitted: "Unless one or other side has an absolute nightmare in one of their innings, this is going to be about securing as many bonus points as we can.

"With a draw now being worth eight points, it can be quite an effective accumulation of points to get a draw out of a game like this.

"We also need to spend time at the crease as a batting unit, we've had two games against good sides where we've been bowled out rather cheaply. This is also a very good bowling side so it's important we put up a good batting performance."