Ormskirk’s Simon Kerrigan and Arron Lilley bowl leaders Lancashire to an innings win over Derbyshire at S&B

Derbyshire began the final day on 123-3, 58 runs behind Lancashire, but collapsed in the morning session as they were bowled out before lunch and in doing so also beat the rain that arrived at 2pm.

Bowling 36.1 unchanged overs this morning spin duo Kerrigan (4-80) and Lilley (5-23) who claimed a maiden five-wicket haul in only the third first-class game of his career, took all seven wickets to fall before lunch.

Only Hashim Amla and David Wainwright made it into double figures for Derbyshire who were dismissed for 166, Derbyshire had been 119-1 late last night, but lost Ben Slater (58) and Chesney Hughes (41) in the final two overs to give Lancashire the impetus for today’s victory push.

Lilley started the collapse, bowling Tom Taylor and then had Scott Elstone caught by Ashwell Prince, left-armer Kerrigan beat Amla’s forward defensive shot to bowl the South Africa Test captain for 11 and then forced Shiv Thakor to edge to Alviro Petersen at slip, Wainwright, attempted to cut a ball through point and  was caught behind off Lilley and Kerrigan ended Harvey Hosein’s stay at the crease to leave the visitors is disarray on 161-9.

Lilley then wrapped things up with the first ball of the 83rd over with his fifth wicket of the innings, bowling last man Mark Footitt as he attempted to launch the off-spinner over the tennis courts, securing a maximum 24 points for the red rose outfit.

Helped by Prince’s superb double ton, Lancashire won for the fourth time in six Championship matches this season, whilst Derbyshire suffered their third defeat in five.

Meanwhile, Derbyshire suffered a third loss in five matches.

Lancashire director of cricket Ashley Giles:

 “That was a really good win after losing the toss on a wicket we thought would spin later on the game”.

“It was a really ruthless performance. I’ve probably complained at times that we’ve not been ruthless enough but throughout this game I thought we’ve handled ourselves really well and played some really good cricket, I love watching the game when there’s two spinners involved for personal reasons as much as anything. The game moved very quickly and when the ball’s turning like that, it’s very good cricket to watch.”

Derbyshire performance director Graeme Welch: 

“I thought it was a good game of cricket. If we’d have scored another 70 plus in the first innings, we’d have been bowling last on that pitch and you never know, but it was always going to be difficult on the final day. The pitch was wearing and they had two quality spinners in Simon Kerrigan and Arron Lilley, it just showed how difficult it was to play out there when one of the best batsmen in the world [Amla] was struggling with the spin and bounce.”