Friends Provident T20 Championship: Yorkshire beat Derbyshire by 4 wickets
Yorkshire beat Derbyshire by 6 wickets in the Friends Provident T20 Championship at the County Ground in Derby on Sunday. Derbyshire won the toss and elected to bat first on a tricky surface. Despite overcast conditions, Yorkshire did well to restrict Derbyshire to 137 runs in the allotted 20 overs. In reply, Yorkshire got home with 6 wickets to spare in the final overs of the game.
Derbyshire opened the batting with Wes Durston and Chesley Hughes. The openers put up a solid performance and took the Yorkshire attack to the cleaners. Durston in particular was looking in good touch who made sure that he made good use of the fielding restrictions. Caribbean youngster Chesley Hughes was not as fluent but showed enough class to assert his name as the one for the future. The duo put on a 41-run partnership in just 6 overs before Hughes was cleaned up by Rich Pyrah in the next over. The opener scored 14 runs from 18 balls with 1 boundary to his credit.
The next man in was Greg Smith who did not hang around for too long as he was sent back in the very next over as he was bowled by leg-spinner Adil Rashid. Smith misjudged a wrong one and the ball crashed into his stumps. The batsmen departed after scoring just 2 runs from 3 balls.
Durston was joined by Wayne Madsen who put together a good partnership for the 3rd wicket stand. The pair added 26 runs in the next 3 overs to bring some normalcy to Derbyshire’s scorecard. However, Durston was the next to go as he was caught by Andrew Gale off the bowling of Hodgson after scoring 39 runs from 35 balls with 3 fours.
Jonathan Clarke walked in next and did play a commanding cover driver but was dismissed for just 10 runs as he was bowled by Hodgson. Madsen also perished after scoring 15 runs from 19 balls with one four, as he tried to go for a big one. However, the player missed a delivery from David Wainwright and Madsen was stumped by Jonathan Bairstow.
Peterson and Garry Park put on a good partnership for the 6th wicket and added 33 runs. The partnership was broken when Park was caught by South African player Herschel Gibbs off the bowling of Clint McKay. He scored 14 runs from 13 balls with one big six.
Peterson carried on and lifted the run rate in the end as he remained unbeaten at 32 runs from 24 balls. Derbyshire ended the innings at 137 for the loss of 7 wickets in the allotted 20 overs.
In reply, Yorkshire powered through to a decent star, but the first wicket fell with the score at 16. Adam Lyth was caught by Durston off the bowling of Smith. Lyth scored 10 runs from 6 balls with 2 fours to his credit.
Gibbs did not make much of an impression and scored just 5 runs from 4 balls with 1 four as he was caught off the bowling of Tim Groenewald.
Gary Ballance came in at number 4 and alongside Gale put the innings the right direction. The pair knew that the required rate was not that challenging as both men took a more cautious approach.
The duo stayed together for almost 17 overs and scored 81 runs for the 3rd wicket partnership. Gale, who was there from the start, played aggressively towards the end. Soon after a clip down the leg side that got him 4 runs, Gale was cleaned up by an in-swinger by South African pacer Charl Langeveldt. Gale scores 55 runs from 56 balls with 4 fours.
Ballance guided his team to victory alongside Clint McKay despite the fact that Bairstow was run out for just 2. Yorkshire got home in the final over with 4 balls to spare and Gale was named as the man-of-the-match for his 55 runs.