County Championship: Durham chip away with the ball to stay in the hunt against Derbyshire

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Durham seamer Ben RaineImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Ben Raine has now taken six wickets in the match against Derbyshire

LV= County Championship Division Two, The Incora County Ground, Derby (day three):

Derbyshire 306: Du Plooy 82; Rushworth 3-60, Raine 3-61 & 185-7: Madsen 57; Raine 3-24

Durham 223: Jones 87; Conners 3-54

Derbyshire (6pts) lead Durham (4pts) by 268 runs with three wickets remaining

Ben Raine bowled Durham back into contention on the third day of the County Championship match against Derbyshire at the Incora County Ground.

The 30-year-old paceman took 3-24 in 18 overs as Derbyshire reached stumps on 185-7 in their second innings, a lead of 268.

Liam Trevaskis also helped contain the promotion hopefuls by claiming 3-71 before bad light ended play early.

Wayne Madsen led the way for Derbyshire with 58 while Billy Godleman made 43 from 141 balls, his highest score of the season in Division Two.

Durham's hopes of reducing the arrears significantly lasted two overs before Oliver Gibson sliced a drive at Sam Conners and was caught by Godleman running from mid off to give the England Lions fast bowler figures of 4-55.

The visitors suffered a major blow after three overs of Derbyshire's second innings when their leading bowler Chris Rushworth left the field with a muscle strain.

Given the state of the game and Rushworth's injury, Durham did well to keep Derbyshire in check with Godleman and Luis Reece taking 23 overs to increase the lead by 50.

Reece did launch Trevaskis over the long off boundary before he was caught behind playing defensively at Raine who bowled a good containing spell from the City End.

Brooke Guest drove Trevaskis for another six but was caught at slip off the next ball as he tried to cut the left-arm spinner.

By lunch Derbyshire were 145 ahead and Godleman showed more intent after the interval, straight driving Trevaskis for six before Madsen completed yet another 50, his 11th of the season, by guiding Raine to the third man boundary.

Godleman was seven away from his first championship half-century of the summer when he was caught on the crease by Raine to end a stand of 88.

Durham struck twice in the next two overs with Leus du Plooy well caught by Nic Maddinson running back to long off and Madsen caught behind dabbing at Raine shortly before bad light stopped play.

Rain prevented a resumption until 4.40pm and Derbyshire's slide continued with two more wickets falling in consecutive overs.

Harry Came's attempt to drive Trevaskis over the top ended in the hands of cover and Mark Watt got a top edge aiming a pull at a ball from Paul Coughlin that stopped on him.

Anuj Dal and Ben Aitchison added another 24 from 67 balls before bad light ended play with 11 overs remaining at 17:30 BST leaving the game intriguingly poised if the rain stays away on the final day.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.