Derbyshire CCC head of cricket praises seventh wicket pair after rain-affected draw with Leicesetershire

The visitors were favourites with Derbyshire still 183 runs short of avoiding an innings defeat on 224 for 6 with Wayne Madsen and Alex Thomson at the crease.

But heavy rain throughout the morning left large pools of surface water on the County Ground outfield.

After lunch was taken early at 12.30, the umpires inspected and the inevitable decision to call the game off was announced shortly after leaving Leicestershire with 16 points and Derbyshire nine from the draw.

“It was a really good partnership under pressure, we’d looked at the forecasts and knew we needed to get into today to get the draw,” he said. “They were very composed, very clinical and did a really good job for us.”

Arthur also recognised the significance of the dropped catches on the first morning after his side had put Leicestershire into bat.

“It definitely set the tone for the game, at 10 for 2 we would have been looking at a totally different scenario.

“I thought we bowled well with the new ball, we asked enough questions to put them under pressure and we created the opportunities but didn’t latch onto those opportunities and that is the very disappointing aspect of it.

“The effort has been outstanding, the commitment to the cause has been outstanding and the determination they’ve showed to get better everyday has been brilliant so I’m never ever questioning that.

“What I did find disappointing was the way we caught because we put a lot of time and work into that and our bowling with the older ball is something we need to work on.The other thing Is we haven’t had a hundred yet.

“We’ve had guys get sixties but I expect for us to be able to put the opposition under enough pressure we need to get runs on the board and we haven’t been able to do that yet.”