Derby defeat makes title a tall order

INDOOR CRICKET

MEDITE Ipswich suffered their second loss to Derby on Saturday when they went down 140-83 at Nottingham.

Ipswich, missing Michael Edmond through injury, batted first and made a promising start with Sean Ongers and James Barker scoring well.

Derby then took a couple of wickets and the opening pair had to work hard for their 17 runs. Mark Smith and Chris Norton batted second and could only manage to add a single run in their four overs.

Derby were looking on top at the halfway stage, but a partnership of 26 between Gavin Driver and Russell Ongers began to swing the game back in favour of the Suffolk side.

Rik Saggers and Mike Pitman the put on a near-faultless partnership of 39 to give the Suffolk side a glimmer of hope in the match.

The hope didn't last too long though as the opening two Derby partnerships took the score to 79 before Ipswich began to get to grips with the task ahead – by which time it was too late and the midlands side amassed a total of 140.

Manager Brian Barnard said afterwards: "This was a very disappointing performance. We never really got to grips with the surface with either bat or ball and were made to pay dearly."

This was the first time in four seasons that Ipswich had failed to gain a point and leaves them with an enormous task ahead of them if they are to keep hold of the National League Trophy this season.

Barnard added: "To even stand a chance of challenging now, we need to beat Stumps and have a rout against Derby in the return match. It may seem a tall order for us, but I still believe that we are capable of doing it."

The B team had better fortune against Derby B with a good 124-98 win, with some promising performances. Mark Sproats and Karl Mildenhall scored an excellent partnership of 53 and Sproats also produced an outstanding bowling performance.

Another plus was the debut of Chris Butler, who batted with maturity and showed a lot of promise with the ball.