Leicestershire stay top after final day draw with Derbyshire

Out for 96, 41-year-old Madsen missed out on notching his seventh century in this fixture. Nonetheless, his record in 26 first-class matches against Leicestershire stands at 2,150 runs at an average of 63.23. The home side, leading by 382 overnight, batted on for a further eight overs in their second innings before declaring nine wickets down to set Derbyshire an unlikely target of 449 from a minimum 86 overs. They were 305 for four with a possible six more overs remaining when the sides shook hands on a draw.

Leicestershire head coach Alfonso Thomas said: “It was a good pitch, a bit of pace and some turn towards the end, on the last day. But in the end we didn’t have enough time to force a result. “If we had not lost time at the end of the third day, we would have given consideration to pulling out overnight but to be honest it had been a quick-scoring game and if you have made all the play throughout the game you don’t want to give them a chance they could have chased down comfortably. “If you look further back in the game, we could have capitalised a bit better in the first innings. I would have liked to get to 550, which would have meant they needed 400 to avoid the follow-on. But we were a few runs short and none of the batters really capitalised on the starts they got.

“I didn’t know we were still top of the table. At this early stage you don’t look at that. But when you have started the season with a win you want to build up a bit of momentum and if you look at this game and Cardiff last week, we’ve played 21 sessions and only lost two of them. We are happy with where we are at the moment and it is nice to have some momentum going forward.” The pitch had yielded runs at a healthy 4.36 per over across the first three innings but 5.22 per always looked a mightily tall order for the team that finished bottom of Division Two last season, even though they also opened the new campaign with a win. Likewise, taking 10 wickets with little evidence of deterioration in the surface looked a remote prospect for the home side.

Derbyshire, moreover, have no history of chasing down substantial winning targets. The county’s biggest fourth-innings total to win a match against county opposition is 365 for seven against Nottinghamshire in the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020.