Chesterfield CC complete emphatic win

Having been put into bat the Rolleston struggled against the new ball surviving a number of close calls before Josh Savage castled Tom Leversage (23) with the score on 41.

Tight bowling backed up by excellent fielding contained the scoring on a good batting track and eventually brought success with two fine catches in the deep as Callum Broderick (12) and the dangerous Muhammad Zaroob (19) attempted to break the shackles.

From 82-3 Rolleston added 72 for the fourth wicket but seemed well off the pace and attempts to accelerate accounted for opener Gareth Marshall (51) and Richard Green (45), caught and stumped off Luke Baddeley.

The young left arm spinner took another wicket (3-35) in the closing stages as Rolleston closed on 206 for 6 leaving Chesterfield with a modest total to chase down in their 50 overs.

Ben Slater and Mykylo Bird made big inroads into the target before the Chesterfield keeper was caught out for 31 with the total on 109, but good progress was maintained with the arrival of Alex Hibbert.

With Slater reaching his century, runs coming at a good rate and the ominous sight of Matt Critchley and Ross Whiteley padded up on the balcony, Rolleston capitulated as Chesterfield cruised to a victory total of 207 for 1 with all but a ball of 12 overs to spare leaving Slater (111) and Hibbert (45) undefeated.

Chesterfield strengthen their hold on fourth place and enter the penultimate round of matches with a game against second placed Eckington at Queen’s Park on Saturday.

Chesterfield II crushed Eckington II by 143 runs in Derbyshire County League 4 North.

Callum Hiron (113) and Alex Fowkes (99 not out) led the way with an explosive 57 not out from Matt Griffiths taking them to 288-2.

Chris Radford (40) and Chris Ludham (48) were the leading scorers in the Eckington reply but wickets for Michael Deane (3-44) and Tim Kirk (4-11) helped to bowl the side out for 145 leaving Chesterfield the winners by a margin of 143 runs with time to spare.

Chesterfield climb to third in the table before making the short journey to league leaders Holmesfield on Saturday.