Matthew Potts five-for leads Durham to dominant win over Derbyshire
England seamer skittles lower order as hosts extend lead in Division Two
ECB Reporters Network
29-Apr-2023
Matthew Potts claimed a five-wicket haul • Getty Images
Durham 452 for 9 dec (Carse 108*) beat Derbyshire 165 (Reece 56*, Raine 3-19, Potts 3-51) and 280 (Lamb 99, Reece 66*, Potts 5-65, Raine 3-60) by an innings and seven runs
Matthew Potts skittled Derbyshire's lower order with a five-wicket haul to allow Durham to claim a dominant victory by an innings and seven runs in their LV= Insurance County Championship Division Two clash at Seat Unique Riverside.
Derbyshire halted Durham's push for victory in the morning session of day three as Matthew Lamb and Luis Reece put on 149 for the sixth wicket. Lamb fell agonisingly short of a century when he was pinned lbw by Ben Raine for 99.
The wicket opened the floodgates for Durham and Potts as the England seamer tore through the lower order to secure the four remaining wickets, ending with figures of 5 for 65 and allowing the hosts to claim maximum points from the fixture. As a result, Durham extended their lead at the top of Division Two, while Derbyshire sit bottom.
After losing 15 wickets on day two, Derbyshire skipper Leus du Plooy insisted his side needed to show fight, and Lamb and Reece defied the Durham attack with a solid approach in the morning session. Lamb cleared the rope twice amid short bowling from the hosts as he worked his way towards his half-century for the ninth time in his first-class career.
Durham could not halt the run rate and the Derybshire batters whittled down the deficit to 69 at the lunch break. Lamb was positioned 13 runs shy of his century before lunch, but quickly added two further boundaries to put himself on the brink of a deserved hundred. However, Lamb was denied three figures as Raine pinned the right-hander lbw and sparked the collapse in Derbyshire's rearguard.
One wicket became two when Zak Chappell got himself in an almighty tangle attempting to play a short ball from Potts and somehow deflected the ball onto his stumps. Potts' aggression with the short ball tormented the Derbyshire lower order as Mark Watt took several blows to the body before he eventually fended the ball to Graham Clark.
The Potts-Clark combination was at work again as Sam Conners fell for a first-ball duck to allow Durham to close in on victory. Reece reached fifty for the second time in the game, but was again left stranded as Potts ensured that his home side would not have to bat again, castling Ben Aitchison to secure his seventh five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.
