A side containing six players under 25, five of them from the club Academy, ran out easy winners by nine wickets with a day to spare against one that has been in the top two of the division for much of the summer.
The match ended with a sterling partnership between Captain Marvel, Wayne Madsen, whose not out innings of 62 concluded a memorable personal match, together with Ben Slater, whose unbeaten 66 was the sort of knock that those who have followed him through the County Premier League, Academy and Second XI knew he could play.
He needed an opportunity to bat where he is used to batting and repaid that faith with an innings of patience and common sense, allowing Madsen to play his shots at the other end and content to keep the score moving along. I can't say that I'm surprised, because I've been saying for months that the lad can play and just needed a crack at his regular role.
The match was total vindication of the decision to play young players. Besides Slater's match-winning knock, Peter Burgoyne's first innings effort kept us within range of Sussex, while Alex Hughes took four wickets on his debut, one that will now be doubly memorable. Matt Higginbottom's was the least obvious success, but in the first innings he got the first wicket after a decent opening stand, then removed Sussex skipper Ed Joyce today when he was just getting into his stride. 1-24 in eleven overs was a good effort that he can be proud of. Krikk's Creche has a nice ring to it...
That second innings was a return to the miserly Derbyshire of last season. Only seven extras - three leg byes and four no balls - in 48 overs, giving the opposition little in the way of free runs. Full credit goes to Tim Groenewald, with 5-40 that led the attack admirably, while Mark Footitt's 3-39 gave us pace and a different angle for the batsmen to contend with.
It was wonderful stuff. We shouldn't get carried away and expect this to be the catalyst of a surge up the table, as we're a little too far off the pace for that at this stage. Yet the players can now look at this game, as well as the recent one against Nottinghamshire and realise that on their day they can match anyone. They just need to harness that commitment and fighting spirit on a regular basis.
To close - who else but Cap'n Madsen. 97 in the first innings, 62 not out in the second, 2-9 with the ball and leading his team to a memorable victory on the day that he became the second most prolific batsman in the top division, with 951 championship runs.
Carlsberg don't do cricket matches.
But if they did....
Well done lads. Top stuff and credit to all of you. Enjoy the journey home.
Being extremely critical in the last few weeks I now give praise where it is due. This was a good all round performance by the young lads and the captain. He certainly led from the front.
ReplyDeleteWell done Derbyshire.
Unbelievably, it's really not over yet, just as I was thinking that I'd have to change my name to "itisnow". It was incredible how they pulled this one out of the hat, and did it without the usual last minute wobble. I still thought we were well behind in the game this morning, and expected nothing better than a creditable defeat.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to eat all of my words and we might have been lucky to come up against a Sussex side that are in the grip of an even grimmer run of defeats than us, but with Somerset and Surrey still to come and still struggling, there's still some hope if we can make this less of a one-off than the win against Notts.
I was lucky enough to be at all three days of the match. Surely one of the best Derbyshire victories of recent years given recent results, the inexperience of so many of their players and the strength of Sussex, especially the bowlers. Magoffin and Jordan came in to the game with a total of 94 wickets. Add Panesar and you can appreciate just how well Derbyshire batted.
ReplyDeleteA team effort with Wayne Madsen superb.
Old supporter
That was an excellent win,coming from the middle of nowhere. We did extremely well to nail Sussex for that sort of score and credit goes to all the seamers. Groenewald did what he did so often last season and Footitt can also be pleased with his performance. Alex Hughes and Higginbottom also played their part in a good team effort.
ReplyDeleteI must admit to being very nervous when we started our second innings,as i,m sure many others would have been,but it was a great effort from the top three. Madsen led superbly from the front and it was very pleasing to see young Slater bat with common sense and responsibility. I suggested he might only be a decent score away from taking off and whilst it would be unwise to go overboard on the back of one innings,I think this lad can answer our top order questions. Well done to all concerned. I hope we can carry it forward to the remaining games.
I've been very critical of the side over recent weeks, but today very well done Derbyshire ,and we can't criticise any aspect of that performance. The team functioned as a unit, something that has sadly been lacking all season. I've been humming the great escape theme since I found out we'd won. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteAmazing win. Having suffered a string of nine-wicket wins at the beginning of the season, it's nice to see one go the other way. Well done to the everyone at Derbyshire CCC.
ReplyDelete