Hughes patience fails to stave off defeat for Derbyshire

LONDON, England, CMC – Chesney Hughes’ patient 44 on Sunday was not enough to stave off defeat for Derbyshire as they went down by seven wickets to Middlesex in their County Championship clash here yesterday.

The Leeward Islands left-hander spent just over 2-1/2 hours at the crease and faced 122 balls as he helped the visitors to 243 in their second innings at the close of the third day at Lord’s on Sunday.

Set a target of 91, Middlesex strolled to their target for the loss of three wickets on Monday, with Chris Rogers stroking 46 not out.

Trailing by 153 on first innings, Derbyshire were quickly in trouble in their second turn at the crease, capitulating to 20 for three.

The 20-year-old Hughes helped patch up the innings by adding 78 for the fourth wicket with Greg Smith (45), hitting five fours in an uncharacteristically sedate knock.

When Smith fell at 98 for four, Hughes followed soon after, leaving Ross Whiteley (41), Jonathan Clare (37) and Luke Sutton (27) to bolster the innings.

Seamers Tim Muratagh (3-58) and Steven Finn (3-59) took three wickets apiece but former Barbados and West Indies fast bowler Corey Collymore went wicket-less again from his eight overs.