County Championship: Matty Potts leads Durham to innings win over Derbyshire

Matty Potts has now taken 16 wickets this season - level with Durham team-mate Ben Raine

Matty otts skittled Derbyshire's lower order with a five-wicket haul to allow Durham to claim victory by an innings and seven runs in their County Championship Division Two match at Chester-le-Street.

Derbyshire halted the hosts' push for victory in the morning session of day three as Matthew Lamb and Luis Reece put on 149 runs for the sixth wicket.

Lamb fell agonisingly short of a century when he was pinned lbw by Ben Raine for 99 and the wicket opened the floodgates for Durham and Potts.

The England seamer tore through the lower order to secure the four remaining scalps, ending with figures of 5-65, allowing the hosts to claim maximum points from the fixture.

As a result, Durham extended their lead at the top of the table, while their opponents sit bottom after three games.

Derbyshire skipper Leus du Plooy insisted that his side needed to show fight after losing 15 wickets on day two and Lamb and Reece defied the Durham attack with a solid approach in the morning session.

Lamb cleared the rope twice as he worked his way towards his half-century for the ninth time in his first-class career.

Durham could not halt the run-rate and the Derbyshire batters whittled down the deficit to 69 at the lunch break.

Lamb had closed to within 13 runs of his century before lunch but quickly added two further boundaries to put himself on the brink of a deserved hundred.

However, it was denied in agonising fashion as Raine pinned the right-hander lbw for 99.

One wicket became two when Zak Chappell got himself in a tangle attempting to play a short ball from Potts and somehow deflected the ball on to his stumps.

Potts' aggression with the short ball tormented the Derbyshire lower order as Mark Watt took several blows to the body before he eventually fended a delivery to Graham Clark.

The Potts-Clark combination was at work again as Sam Conners fell for a first-ball duck to allow Durham to close in on victory.

Reece reached a half-century for the second time in the game but was again left stranded as Potts ensured that the hosts would not have to bat again, castling Ben Aitchison to secure his seventh five-wicket haul in first-class cricket and wrap up the contest.

Durham head coach Ryan Campbell:

"We fought hard. You're not just given wins. We had to earn it. Their two lads played well in the morning session and we lost our way a little bit. But, once there was an end open we felt their tail could go very quickly.

"That's the difference between us and a lot of the other teams. We have a lot of fast bowlers that can be genuinely aggressive and tailenders don't like facing them.

"Matthew Potts was excellent. Both Potts and Brydon Carse want to play for England, but they also want to play for Durham. They need to put in performances for us to catch the eye of the selectors.

"We've got a couple of weeks to prepare for Yorkshire, which will be a great game. I honestly feel Yorkshire are a Division One team. We want to find out if we're good enough to play in Division One."

Derbyshire coach Micky Arthur:

"We 100% lost the game on the second day. The only thing we can take out of this game was the fight on the final day with the partnership between Matthew Lamb and Luis Reece.

"We can't concede 400 runs on day one like we did and you can't be rolled out like we were on day two.

"You're never going to come back into any game like that. You're not going to come back from being 6-4.

"We've got to be able to bounce back. It's easy when you've got the wind in your sails, but it's tough when things are not going your way."

"Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.