COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP REVIEW
Former Warwickshire bowler Graham Wagg took a career-best six for 38 to fire Derbyshire to an impressive 344-run County Championship Division Two victory over Somerset at Taunton.
The 23-year-old left-arm seamer, who served a 15-month England and Wales Cricket Board ban for taking cocaine before he became free to play this season, produced a brilliant spell either side of lunch from the river end as the home side chased an unlikely 472 to win in a minimum of 88 overs.
Wagg, discarded by Warwickshire in 2004 after his drug problems, took six wickets in 47 deliveries while conceding only 24 runs. His previous career-best was four for 43 on his first-class debut for Warwickshire against Somerset at Edgbaston in 2002.
Four of his victims were caught behind by James Pipe, formerly of Worcestershire. Only Australian Test opener Justin Langer, with 30, showed much resistance in a hapless batting display. Derbyshire took 20.5 points, following a 0.5 deduction for slow over-rate, with Somerset picking up six.
Langer and Matt Wood had an opening stand of 46 for Somerset who were a batsman short, with Keith Parsons nursing a broken hand.
Graeme Welch, the captain and another former Warwick-shire player, took the first of the three other wickets when Langer was well caught by Michael Di Venuto in the slips. Welch took three for 24 from 6.4 overs.
In Division One at Nottingham, a typically engaging declaration by Hampshire captain Shane Warne and some adventurous batting by the hosts left the outcome in doubt.
David Hussey (150no) and David Alleyne (99) - playing as a specialist batsman in a team also including first-choice wicketkeeper Chris Read - shared a fourth-wicket stand of 239 which raised expectations of a famous last-day chase. Hussey hit 21 fours and a six from 260 balls but Notts finished on 318 for five, 66 runs short of their target.
