Cotton takes limelight from Footitt

Derbyshire 289 and 162 for 1 (Slater 73*, Madsen 66*) lead Leicestershire 141 (Cotton 4-20) by 310 runs
Scorecard

Derbyshire's young seamer Ben Cotton took the bowling honours away from Mark Footitt at Derby as Leicestershire's batting folded again to leave them facing the prospect of another defeat.

Footitt's position as the country's leading wicket-taker was rewarded with a place in England's Performance squad but it was Cotton's 4 for 20 and Tony Palladino's 3 for 34 which undermined Leicestershire, who were skittled for 141 to trail by 148 runs.

It could have been much worse but for 34 from Ben Raine and an unbeaten 24 from Charlie Shreck, which lifted their side from the depths of 63 for 7 and edged their team past the follow-on target of 140. However, by the close, Derbyshire held all the aces at 162 for 1, a lead of 310.

It means the bottom club in Division Two will have to stage a remarkable recovery to avoid becoming the first county since the Second World War to go two seasons without a Championship victory.

They will have to improve considerably on another lamentable batting performance in sunny conditions which offered no excuses for the rash of reckless strokes that started an ignominious collapse to leave the innings in ruins by lunch.

Ned Eckersley set the tone by going hard at a wide ball from Palladino in the fourth over of the morning and former Derbyshire batsman Dan Redfern failed on his return when he tried to cut a ball that was too close to him and played on.

Tom Wells was dropped at square leg but it was only a brief reprieve for the visitors as three wickets fell in the space of 19 balls with the score on 63. Wells was caught behind down the leg side, skipper Niall O'Brien edged a firm-footed flash at Cotton before he had scored and Angus Robson drove low to gully with the follow-on still 77 runs away.

But Raine showed the application and selectivity which had previously been lacking and, with Rob Taylor, took the total into three figures before Taylor was hurried by a short ball from Footitt and played on.

Raine and Shreck added 33 but with Leicestershire only two away from their target, Raine was caught in the covers trying to hit Cotton over the top and showed his dismay as he walked off.

Atif Sheikh just cleared point to get the runs required but was bowled next ball to leave Derbyshire with a lead of 148 and they stretched that to 201 by tea for the loss of Billy Godleman, who was stumped giving James Sykes the charge.

Ben Slater and skipper Wayne Madsen enjoyed themselves in the evening sunshine with the former providing an object lesson to Leicestershire's batsmen by adding a half-century off 125 balls to his first innings century.

Madsen passed 1000 Championship runs for the season on the way to his 50, which came courtesy of a dropped catch at deep square leg by Redfern which summed up another chastening day for Leicestershire.

O'Brien said: "The batsmen let the team down today, there was no reason why we couldn't have batted the majority of the day but unfortunately there was a severe lack of concentration and application, there were too many loose shots from the top and middle order."

Footitt admitted his inclusion in the performance squad was a great end to a memorable season. "I am really excited and can't wait to get out there. When I set out at the start of the season my main aim was to get 50 wickets.

"When I went past that the aim was to see how many I could take and now it's been capped off by being told I'm in the performance squad to go to South Africa."