Nottinghamshire v Derbyshire Vitality Blast game six

Derbyshire 199-5 (Donald 73, Guest 37*, Whiteley 35* Harrison 3-32)

Nottinghamshire 153-9 (Clarke 59, Patel 3-14, Ghazanfar 2-26, Brown 2-35, Hudson-Prentice 2-38)

Derbyshire won by 46 runs

Derbyshire produced an outstanding all-round performance at Trent Bridge tonight, beating Nottinghamshire with considerable ease by 46 runs.

From the moment that Calvin Harrison turned one inside an attempted drive by Caleb Jewell, I fancied our chances. We were bowling second, on a pitch taking spin and both of our spinners did a fine job tonight. If only we had done that at Durham, when we won the toss...

Batting first after being inserted by Nottinghamshire, Jewell and Nye Donald led off in fine style, getting through the Powerplay without being parted for the first time. Caleb went to the first ball after it, but Donald was on one of his nights and hit the ball with great power. Yet tonight his batting was measured, he didn't approach his innings like someone on a golf range. There were five sixes in his 73 from 34 deliveries and the only frustration was when he got out ahead of time, but he had given us a foundation on which to build.

Madsen came in at three, as I suggested he should do on the radio this morning, but he and Patel both got out quickly. Samit is still too high, but tonight it didn't matter, because Whiteley and Guest batted brilliantly to add an unbroken 65 from the last five overs. Brooke is always likely to do that and again, the frustration was that he has been excluded from too many games so far. Whiteley hit with serious power, continues to look in fine touch and the final total of 199 set Nottinghamshire a real challenge.

It was even harder when Ghazanfar's brilliance took two early wickets again, opposition batters having little idea what he was bowling. Nottinghamshire were in disarray and it could have been all over when Hudson-Prentice deceived Clarke, who top edged to mid wicket. Guest made great ground but either his call wasn't picked up by Ghazanfar or was lost in translation and a horrid collision ensued. The jeers from the home support were boorish and uncalled for, as it looked for a while as if Ghazanfar was badly injured, but thankfully he was able to walk from the field after attention from medical staff and returned later to complete his spell.

Clarke and Montgomery gave the home side hope, but a a magnificent spell by Patel turned the game. In four overs, a clearly pumped up Derbyshire captain removed Clarke, Montgomery and Moores and the game was won. He bowled with great guile tonight and 3-14 in T20 is a magnificent effort. If he would just accept his place in the batting is down the order these days, there would be no complaints from me.

The Derbyshire seam attack was much better tonight and it was nice to see Brown's many variations back in play, together with better line and length. Hudson-Prentice also did well and while Aitchison is a relative novice in this form of the game, he let no one down. 

The frustration is that we know these players have this sort of performance in them. It has taken too long to get the correct eleven on to the park, but I hope that fitness allows us to keep this side for the rest of the competition. Perhaps Chappell and Aitchison may rotate, or play together when FHP goes back to Sussex.

Anyway, we are off the mark and have beaten Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge for the first time since 2013. It was a night that will live long in the memory and was a very good team performance, the kind that has lit up our red ball summer.

Let's see a few more now, fellas. 

The standard has been set tonight. 

In closing, I had a lengthy interview today with Matt Rhodes from North Derbyshire Radio. 

You can have a listen here and I am on at the 21 minute mark.