DERBYSHIRE will have to overcome the weight of probability and history if they are to come away from Chelmsford with a win.

A disciplined bowling performance left them needing 372 to beat Essex, with 184 left to get when they ended the third day of their LV County Championship match on 188-5 yesterday.

It will truly be some feat if Derbyshire can pull this one off.

Not only have they never scored more than 350 in the fourth innings to win a Championship match, they haven't won on this ground since 1937.

Records, as they say, are made to be broken.

All Derbyshire could do yesterday was give themselves a chance and, after four wickets each for Charl Langeveldt and Graham Wagg, it seemed they had batted themselves into a useful position when Dominic Telo and Rikki Clarke were in full flow.

The fourth wicket pair hauled Derbyshire back from 97-3 shortly after tea to put on 87 in 20 overs until the game took a potentially terminal turn for the worse inside the last three overs of the day.

Telo was caught at silly point for 69 off the dangerous Danish Kaneria and, four balls later, Clarke followed to an astonishing catch by wicketkeeper James Foster for 44.

The wickets dealt a huge blow to Derbyshire's hopes.

The only consolation in the fact that they came so late in the day is that they had the night to recover their poise.

There was also a kind of comfort for both batsmen that they could claim there was very little they could do about their dismissals.

Telo batted beautifully to his highest score for the county, beating the 65 he made at Bristol in the opening fixture, and the hope now is that this innings represents a significant change in the fortunes of the 22-year-old.

In the first innings, as throughout the Twenty20s, Telo's stay at the crease was pleasing to the eye though far too brief but, this time, he pressed on to make a significant contribution.

He had handled leg-spinner Kaneria confidently but the Pakistani can conjure special deliveries and made a ball spit to catch the shoulder of the bat and fly to Ravi Bopara. Telo faced 84 balls and scored seven fours.

Likewise, Clarke looked the part after too many false dawns with the bat this season and moved to 44, off 54 balls with eight fours and a six, so fluently that it seemed he had broken out of his slump.

Quite where Ryan ten Doeschate found extra bounce from, heaven knows and how Foster managed to hold on to the catch standing up to the medium-pacer was even more remarkable.

Derbyshire did well to bowl Essex out for 238, with Bopara (71), ten Doeschate (55 not out) and Foster (37) the only real obstacles in their way.

Langeveldt was outstanding, as ever, in finishing with 4-52. Wagg was more erratic but did the business in claiming 4-71.

Regardless of whether or not rain intervenes, as is threatened, Derbyshire took up the challenge of making history with purpose and an opening stand of 57 between Dan Birch and Steve Stubbings gave them a good start.

The loss of Birch (31), Stubbings (30) and Wavell Hinds (two) spelt trouble at 97-3 but the dismissals of Telo and Clarke leave an awful lot to do.