Lancashire end winless run by beating Derbyshire

George Balderson (right) had match figures of 8-125 for Lancashire at Chesterfield

Rothesay County Championship Division Two, Queen's Park, Chesterfield (day four)

Lancashire 367 & 406-6 dec

Derbyshire 261 & 251: Madsen 95*, Guest 46; Balderson 4-54, Bailey 3-39

Lancashire (22 pts) beat Derbyshire (4 pts) by 261 runs

Match scorecard

George Balderson ended Lancashire's red-ball drought when he bowled them to a crushing 261-run victory over Derbyshire in their County Championship match at Chesterfield.

The all-rounder took 4-54 and eight wickets overall in the match as the Red Rose finally celebrated a first championship victory of the season.

Derbyshire were dismissed for 251 shortly after lunch to end their unbeaten start in Division Two.

Set an improbable 513, skipper Wayne Madsen made an unbeaten 95 and Brooke Guest 46, but once the fourth-wicket pair were parted, the hosts collapsed with Tom Bailey taking the last two wickets to finish with 3-39.

The grey clouds over Queen's Park suggested the conditions were good for the bowlers, especially Jimmy Anderson, and although the bat was beaten, Derbyshire survived the first hour in relative comfort.

Madsen eased Anderson to the cover boundary on his way to his second fifty of the match, which came off 86 balls, and when the former England fast bowler failed to take a wicket in his opening four-over spell, Derbyshire had achieved their first objective of the morning.

With Anderson out of the attack, Madsen and Guest kept the scoreboard ticking over without taking any risks and the stand was worth 127 in 18 overs when Lancashire finally broke through.

The decision to bring on Chris Green at the Lake End was rewarded when Guest tried to shovel the off-spinner through mid-wicket, missed, and was lbw.

That would have come as a relief to Lancashire, who might have been starting to get a little anxious, but they were soon celebrating again.

Martin Andersson had top scored in the first innings but this time he got a good ball from Balderson that straightened to take his off-stump for just three.

The morning got even better for the visitors when Anuj Dal (13), who has figured in several Derbyshire rearguard actions, tried to whip Green off his legs and was bowled.

When Balderson again found just enough seam movement to bowl Zak Chappell for a duck, Madsen was in danger of being stranded and he saw another wicket fall in the last over of the session.

Ben Aitchison (two) edged Balderson low to second slip, where Green took a good catch, which meant Derbyshire had lost 5-33 in 11 overs.

Madsen went into lunch unbeaten on 78, his eighth 50 in 15 innings this season, and it was now a question of whether he could convert that into three figures.

He was denied by Bailey with the new ball, who accounted for Blair Tickner (two) and Jack Morley for nought, with Anderson taking the catch at third slip, which sparked Lancashire's long-awaited celebrations.

Lancashire captain James Anderson:

"It's a very proud dressing room today. It's been a tough season but I feel like over the last couple of games we've slowly turned the corner.

"We could easily have won at Blackpool last week when we put a really hard shift in and we've gone one better this week.

"Four-day cricket is hard work and sometimes you do have to soak up pressure. We didn't soak it up particularly well that first morning but that can happen when the ball does a bit on day one but I thought the way we fought our way back into the game was outstanding.

"The moment we got an opportunity to sniff a switch in momentum we took it and in both games, Blackpool and here, we've tried to be positive when we could and I thought that showed throughout the game."

Derbyshire head of cricket Mickey Arthur:

"We were in a great position (on day one) and we had opportunities which we didn't take which was ultimately costly.

We got ourselves into a position where they were 136-6 and we had an opportunity to make that 142-7 but we didn't do that and we paid the price.

"We've shown a hell of a lot of resilience and been ruthless when we needed to be but I think we were off just a little bit in our disciplines in this game and you can't afford to be.

"Wayne (Madsen) has been outstanding again all year for us, he just keeps churning them out, and we have had some nice decent performances but unfortunately in this game we weren't consistent enough and against a team like Lancashire with all their main players back and some very good overseas players are going to make you pay and they did."

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