County Championship: Essex ease to win over Derbyshire

Ravi Bopara has taken 16 wickets in the County Championship this summer

Essex completed victory over Derbyshire by an innings and 188 runs before lunch on the third day at Derby.

Resuming on 102-3 following on, the hosts soon subsided to 182-8 after Ryan ten Doeschate (3-15) broke a fifth-wicket stand of 41 between Wayne Madsen (38) and Wes Durston.

And with Shiv Thakor and Tony Palladino unable to bat because of injury that was enough to hand Essex the win.

Ravi Bopara picked up two more wickets to finish with a season's best 4-29.

Thakor and Palladino were both injured after tea on the opening day, seamer Palladino jarring his right shoulder making a sliding stop on the boundary, while all-rounder Thakor suffered a recurrence of a back injury while bowling.

Derbyshire captain Wayne Madsen:

"We are not trying to make any excuses, this is just not good enough and we've got to find solutions to compete in games and stay in them longer.

"It's very disappointing the way that we played. There's no consistency to our play, you need everyone chipping in over the course of the season and we haven't had that this year."

Acting Essex head coach Chris Silverwood:

"It was a fantastic team performance. We are getting first-innings runs and the bowling attack stuck at it. We did exactly what we said we were going to do and we got the rewards.

"I will be putting my hat in the ring and see what comes, but first and foremost for me was to see us through the last games and do the best we can. We said next season starts now and we want to set the bar high."