Derbyshire 251-9 (Came 108)

Gloucestershire 195-5 (Charlesworth 58*, Hammond 50, Bracey 41, Reece 3-37, Lakmal 1-12

Derbyshire lead by 56 runs 

An excellent maiden first class century by Harry Came, hopefully the first of many, was the highlight of a somewhat slow day of first class cricket at Derby.

Came batted very well and was the most impressive bat on his side, by some distance. Good support came today from Luis Reece and Alex Thomson, which saw Derbyshire reach 250 and a batting bonus point, before declaring with nine wickets down.

After that, Gloucestershire batted for the rest of the day but in no great haste, suggesting that a draw is the summit of ambition for this game.

It was good to see Suranga Lakmal running in hard and bowling an excellent spell, as did Luis Reece, but only Hammond and Bracey of the visiting side showed any positive intent. 

It is hard to see where a positive result can come from tomorrow. Perhaps both sides are afraid of losing and going in to the T20 break adrift at the bottom of the table. The visitors may bat on for bonus points, but if they do off the game is dead from a positive result perspective. A bold move would have been to declare a hundred behind and allow a target to be set on the last afternoon, but I understand why both sides are unlikely to take risks at this stage.

Tomorrow looks like being a day reserved purely for the acquisition of bonus points. Anything more would surprise me.