Godleman hurt as winless run goes on

Captain Billy Godleman said he felt hurt after Derbyshire's hopes of a first County Championship win in two years were dashed on a dramatic final day at Northamptonshire.
Billy GodlemanBilly Godleman
Billy Godleman

Sixteen wickets fell, as they had on the first day, as Derbyshire crumbled to 191 all out in their second innings in search of 319 for that elusive victory.

“The manner of how we lost our wickets in both innings really hurts me, Godleman said.

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The home side were dismissed for 218 on the first day before Derbyshire replied with 176 for nine.

Northants were then bundled out at the start of the final day for 277, losing their last six wickets for 17 runs .

But Godleman admitted: “Ultimately we didn’t play good enough cricket for as long as they did — and that was the reflection in the scores.

“After the first innings I would taken that score.

“But I did think we could have bowled them out closer to 150 on day one.”

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One bright spot for Godleman and Derbyshire was the performance of Conor McKerr, who took a second five-wicket haul in the game and became the youngest bowler to take ten in a match for the county, beating F.E. Bracey, whose ten-wicket haul came in 1907 — ironically against Northamptonshire .

Northants had resumed four down with a lead of 289 and wanted to set a target towards 400.

Those ambitions were destroyed by McKerr to raise hopes of Derbyshire’s first win for those two long years.

But then before lunch they lost three cheap wickets to Ben Sanderson.

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Billy Godleman miscued a pull that came off a top-edge to square leg, Jeevan Mendis was trapped lbw to an in-swinger and Shiv Tahkor also fell pulling.

Three more quick wickets fell after the break before Tom Taylor (69) made a bright half-century in a stand of 106 with Daryn Smit that avoided humiliation, but merely delayed Northants’ victory until after tea.