County Championship: Middlesex and Derbyshire in rain-hit draw

Brooke Guest’s unbeaten half-century steered Derbyshire to safety against Middlesex and kept their promotion hopes alive ahead of next week’s vital County Championship meeting with Glamorgan.

Guest finished on 65 at Lord’s, having added 66 with Martin Andersson (31 not out) after third-placed Derbyshire had slumped to 87 for four in their second innings, an advantage of just 72 over their hosts.

An afternoon downpour brought the contest to a premature close and left Derbyshire 27 points adrift of second-placed Glamorgan, who they host in the penultimate round of Division Two fixtures.

Middlesex, a further three points behind Derbyshire, still retain a slim chance of promotion following the draw, which was also enough to confirm Leicestershire’s elevation to the top flight after 22 years.

The home side’s hopes of forcing a victory were boosted after the opening four overs of the day, in which they captured two wickets to leave Derbyshire three down with a slender lead of 31.

Luis Reece added just five to his overnight 17 before he was given out lbw to a Ryan Higgins delivery that zoomed some way back down the slope and Wayne Madsen soon followed in similar fashion to Toby Roland-Jones.

Guest rode his luck at the start of his innings, with two inside edges off Higgins (2-49) that zipped just past the stumps and rolled to the rope, as well as surviving a persuasive lbw appeal by Olly Stone to a ball that kept low.

The England paceman, in the first of a two-match loan from Nottinghamshire, was unlucky not to gain greater reward for an impressive pre-lunch spell, although he did remove Harry Came with a beauty that cannoned in to send middle stump flying.

Having given away just six runs in his first eight overs, Stone conceded the same from one short-pitched delivery after the interval as Andersson pulled him into the Mound Stand to stretch Derbyshire’s lead to three figures.

A brief rain stoppage with Guest on 47 could not derail the Derbyshire wicketkeeper, who punched Stone through the covers for four to complete a fifth half-century of the campaign soon after play resumed.

Although Guest got away with a mistimed pull off Higgins that looped up and fell to safety, his work was already done and the dark clouds menacing the ground duly unloaded an hour into the afternoon session to confirm a stalemate.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay