County Championship: Mattie McKiernan's maiden ton propels Derbyshire towards victory

Mattie McKiernan compiled his maiden century from 189 balls with 11 fours and a six.

Derbyshire moved within sight of a first Championship win of the season and left Leicestershire battling to avoid an innings defeat.

Seamer Ed Barnes (5-101) took his first five-wicket haul, taking all his wickets for eight runs in a 26-ball spell on day three, as Derbyshire lost their last six first-innings wickets for 27.

But a maiden ton from Mattie McKiernan (105) - building on Shan Masood's superb 219 on Friday - helped the visitors to 531 for a first-innings lead of 318.

It left Leicestershire, who had to fight rearguard actions to draw both of their opening Division Two matches, having to survive two sessions just to take the contest into the final day.

Off-spinner Alex Thomson (3-36) accounted for Hassan Azad, George Rhodes and Harry Swindells as the hosts slid to 146-6 at stumps, still 172 runs short of making Derbyshire bat again.

Derbyshire's Mattie McKiernan:

"It was a very proud moment for me, especially having my family here to watch. I'm 27 now and I have played cricket for a long time but I'm still new to this level.

"I've tried to work on my batting as I've grown up and tried to add that as an extra skill on top of my bowling so it was a special moment and good to be able to help the boys put such a good score on the board.

"I only found out Thursday morning that I was playing although after speaking to the coach the day before I knew there was a good chance. To have Shan Masood at the other end. He's a proper player. It was brilliant and you learn such a lot from the way he goes about things."

Leicestershire fast bowler Ed Barnes:

"It's a bittersweet when you look at where we ended the day but it was obviously great to get my maiden five-for.

"We kept it a bit more simple with the ball and maybe had a bit more fire in our bellies. The way we finished their innings was encouraging but after the way Masood batted it just shows how important a big partnership can be in four-day cricket, it can take a game away from you and that's hopefully something we can learn from ourselves.

"We started our second innings well but there were a few soft dismissals and that's something we have to do better at as a batting unit. You can't constantly be on the back foot in every game because it will catch up with you and it is something we have to improve."