Yorkshire v Derbyshire T20

A fine performance by Derbyshire tonight saw them move back into the mix for the tournament.

Despite a shocking start, in which Wes Durston sold Martin Guptill down the river then played around a quick one from Ajmal Shahzad, Chesney Hughes and Wayne Madsen brought the innings back on track. It was not until the advent of Garry Park that the scoring rate lifted, however, the latter playing some brilliantly improvised strokes mixed with trademark running between the wickets.

As Luke Sutton said at the end, there are few better players for such situations than Madsen and we again has reason to be thankful for the common sense he showed. I can pay him no greater tribute than suggesting that his ability to time his shots so there are twos reminds me of Dean Jones, still the best one-day batsman of my experience.

When Park went after one improvisation too many, Ross Whiteley came in to play some fine shots, a blistering cover drive and a straight hit for six being the standouts. 150 was way beyond my expectations at ten overs and was tribute to some terrific cricket.

This continued in the field, with the skipper pulling off a fine stumping off a Wes Durston legside wide, then fine fielding and clever bowling combined to put the brakes on Yorkshire. I don't think the commentators gave enough credit to Hughes and Knight, both young players, for their clever bowling and subtle variations. The fielding was brilliant, with Guptill, Madsen and Park outstanding. Between them they saved the difference between the two teams on the boundary in an inspired display. The only mistake I recall in a tigerish display was the drop by Ross Whiteley, but anyone who has played cricket has dropped one of those and it happens.

The end result was decided by a fine penultimate over by Tim Groenewald and despite some brave blows by Gary Balance, Steffan Jones had too much in his locker to provide a shock ending.

It was a good effort by the Derbyshire side. For what its worth, I would like to see Garry Park move up to three where his improvisation could be of added value in the powerplay. Chesney is a fine young player, but is currently a better player of seam than spin. With increasing use of spinners to open the bowling, he tends to go for the big one with mixed results at the expense of working it around. Switching the two of them could be mutually beneficial. A minor point, perhaps, but constructive comment on a night when Derbyshire showed they can be a good side when they are all firing.

Good effort lads. Something similar at Worcester on Friday would set us up very nicely for Leek on Sunday.