da cassino online： At the end of the second day of their CricInfo Championship match atSouthgate, Middlesex were on the brink of beating Derbyshire to maintaintheir surprising early challenge for promotion to the first division
Norman de Mosquita31-May-2001At the end of the second day of their CricInfo Championship match atSouthgate, Middlesex were on the brink of beating Derbyshire to maintaintheir surprising early challenge for promotion to the first division.Having taken their first innings total to a daunting 543 – their highestscore since making 587 against Nottinghamshire at Lord’s in 1985 – they hadDerbyshire on the ropes by close of play; 111 for 9, still 283 short ofavoiding the follow-on.The damage was done by the spinners – Phil Tufnell (5-42) and Paul Weekes(4-25) – who were backed up by some smart catching and some less thanresolute Derbyshire batting.There was no hint of the carnage to come when Steve Stubbings and Luke Suttonput on 47 for the first wicket off the 17 overs preceding lunch but, as soonas the spinners started to bowl in harness, the rot set in and the ninewickets fell for the addition of 64 runs in the space of 37 overs.The main interest of the morning was whether Owais Shah (141 overnight) wouldcomplete the first double-century of his career. He did so with his 32ndfour, but was out next ball, well caught at mid-wicket to give Nathan Dumelowthe first of his four wickets at a cost of 103 runs; an impressive return fora young off spinner appearing in only his second Championship match.But he was the only Derbyshire player who could look back on the day with anysatisfaction and it must surely be when, rather than if, they suffer theirsecond sucessive championship defeat.