Sunday, 6 July 2025

Derbyshire v Yorkshire Vitality Blast

Yorkshire 200-6 (Thompson 37*, Wharton 33, Bairstow 29, Ghazanfar 2-21, Brown 2-37)

Derbyshire 201-3 (Donald 85, Madsen 38*, Jewell 31, Whiteley 29* Sutherland 1-16)

Derbyshire won by 7 wickets 

The problem with watching Derbyshire in this competition has been their inability to produce a complete bowling or batting performance. To produce both has been problematic all summer.

Today we started well, but haemorrhaged runs towards the end, as Jordan Thompson, who moves to Warwickshire next summer, opened his shoulders.

Everyone got going for Yorkshire and 12 sixes were hit in their twenty overs, but Thompson's eleven-ball salvo for 37 unbeaten runs was the highest of the innings. Three perished to boundary catches by Harry Came, restored to the side in place of Brooke Guest, with Nye Donald keeping wicket. Will Sutherland did too, courtesy of a blinder by Ross Whiteley, who has held his share of those throughout his career. 

Regardless of it being a small ground, 200 takes some chasing in twenty overs.  Or could have, had it not been for another of those Nye Donald innings. 

Nye can thrill and frustrate with equal alacrity, but today he hit an astonishing 85 from just 30 balls, with 8 sixes and 7 fours. Everything found the middle of his bat, until he top-edged Chohan and was caught at mid wicket. His 13-ball fifty was the joint fastest In the history of T20 in this country (shared with Marcus Trescothick) and the only disappointment was that he could have claimed the fastest century in the club's history. Yet one cannot be churlish after witnessing such an astonishing display of hitting. 

Jewell lent good support in an opening stand of 115 in less than nine overs, without timing the ball quite so well, with the exception of one huge six over long leg. They scored 90 in the Powerplay, which sets an impressive benchmark.

It was an indication of how well Donald batted that for once Wayne Madsen was but a sideshow to the main event. Yet he played calmly and professionally to steer his side home, in the company of Whiteley, at last elevated in the order to play himself in and influence the game properly. They took Derbyshire to a fully deserved win with sixteen balls to spare, only the second time that the county has chased 200 to win a game in this format. 

For the visitors, Thompson followed his batting with a decent bowling effort and Will Sutherland bowled well for them, but the rest went around the park and the fielding disintegrated in the face of the onslaught.

They must be getting to the point that they give Derbyshire the points for this fixture. That's eight successive wins here and it just seems that the large, partisan crowd and small, intimate environment brings out the best of the Derbyshire side. Perhaps we should play more T20 matches here and play to our strengths..

It doesn't, of course, take away from the fact that we have only turned up three times in the competition. It is hard to believe that the side that beat Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire so convincingly, then played as they did today, has failed to win another game.

The ability is clearly there. Somehow, with changes in personnel, they have to find the way to produce the goods more consistently next year. It is no coincidence that the sides we have beaten are broadly similar in standard, yet we disintegrate when faced with supposed better opposition. It would help immensely if we only played Lancashire and Birmingham once each..

But today, regardless of earlier shortcomings, they hammered Yorkshire in a display that will live long in the memory.

Most of the crowd will have been very happy, as they made their way home, at the end of another successful Chesterfield Festival. 

As long as they didn't have white roses on their hats...

25 comments:

  1. Superb Performance,Simon

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  2. I heard Wayne describe todays innings by Nye as the greatest in the powerplay he has witnessed in his career. Praise indeed for Donald who singlehandedly won the game for us today. Nye now has 312 runs in this years competition (6th highest of anybody) and leads the Strike Rate stats of any player across the country with 212.24 per 100 balls. His average is 31.2 and he is equal top of the t20 most 50s with his 4th for the year. We are fortunate to have him and with more consistency he would be truely top of the pile. Lets hope he can add that to his game as if he did we will be in for an exciting couple of years before he is snapped up by the Counties with the largest budgets

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  3. Just spotted Nye is also top of the most 6s in this years competition with 23. Next best is Malan and Wells on 18

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  4. I’ve always been critical of Donald’s batting contributions but I have to complement him on some tremendous hitting today. If only he could add consistency and a cricketing brain to his armoury, he’d be a very good player and not a one trick pony. Slogging it out of the park in a totally meaningless game needs to be replaced by doing it when it actually counts.

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    1. Four scores of 50+ in 10 innings is pretty decent especially when he came into the comp off an injury, no cricket and looking woefully out of touch for the first 2 or 3 games.

      You can’t expect him to do it every game, when he has we have won, with the exception of the DLS game against Notts. Our problem has been when he doesn’t get the runs no one else does. Only Whiteley has really shown good form of the other batters…and he’s usually come in when the game is as good as lost.

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  5. Great innings and a great win. Grant from Telford

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  6. That was just wonderful to watch today.

    A packed ground, excellent atmosphere, great organisation and still processing Nye's top, destruction, batting gears.

    If only there was a way to play more at QP. The joy of it never fades and it's clear that supporters love the place.

    Well done again to all at Chesterfield CC (good cakes!)and DCCC for their sterling efforts.

    Yeah. That'll do nicely

    Andy

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  7. Chesterfield Blue6 July 2025 at 18:57

    Derby, tearing Yorkshire apart again to the tune of Joy Divisions Love will tear us apart. Well we do don't we in this format at Chesterfield every season, we relish playing them. So disappointed that Nye didn't go on to make a dazzling ton, I knew he wouldn't but what a sensational innings amazing. Surprised to hear that that was only the second time in our t20 history that we've chased a total down of over 200, wow.
    Great victory that today but I just wish we could've shown that level of application a lot more this season

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  8. As others have said what an amazing sequence at Queens Park. 8 wins from 8 vs Yorkshire. Their fans were a lot quieter this year and I think fewer in number. Derbyshire fans by contrast were noisy in their support and why not as more all time Derbyshire records were beaten

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  9. A wonderful afternoon spent at Queens Park watching Derbyshire putting Yorkshire to the sword, yet again. It was a pleasure to witness that knock from Nye Donald that made victory a formality by the time he was out in the ninth over. Good support early on from Caleb Jewell and then Wayne and Ross saw us home.

    The bowlers, especially Ghazanfar and Patel did their part in ensuring we weren’t chasing more than two hundred and the fielding along with some excellent catches kept Yorkshire in check.

    If only we could perform like this more often.

    Just another wonderful day at Queens Park and mention must go to Chesterfield CC and all the staff in ensuring that a large crowd was well catered for.

    Nudger

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  10. Good shout in that last paragraph Nudger. The off field staff did ever so well for us all

    Andy

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  11. Tim, Chesterfield6 July 2025 at 21:34

    Other than Zak's unusually generous bowling we did pretty well in the field I thought, other than that unnecessary throw that went off the bat for a bonus 4. It's a shame we haven't shown up more often as there's a reasonable T20 side in there. Donald's innings was of course superb and he only truly nailed one of the sixes!

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  12. I joked on the clubs social media pages that we should play all our T20 home games at QP. Seriously though, trying to get another game there should be looked at.

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    1. You don't have to go back that many years and the Festival was a 4-day Championship game sandwiched between TWO Blast fixtures. However the decision about to be made regarding the future of County cricket makes a second QP T20 even less likely, surely? Are we even confident the Chesterfield Festival will survive a reduction of Championship cricket to 12 matches? Graham

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  13. In the 4 dayer at Chesterfield I walked past Nye giving Chappell and Brown a mini history lesson on county cricket and how often they used to play back in the day. A good guy who recognises the history of the game. Top man, top player. Well batted. Luke

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  14. This is what Donald can do, and he pushed on to 85. Brilliant batting! I mean 50 off 13 balls. That's crazy. We have one of the most destructive batsmen in the T20.

    With Donald's big hitting, plus that of Jewell, Madsen, Patel, and Whiteley, we should never have lost the first five games.

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  15. Fantastic to watch from Donald. Thrill a minute. Over 10,000 people at this year's festival, which is a fabulous turn out. Kris

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  16. Can't remember seeing a better T20 knock than the one yesterday from Donald. I guess if he was more consistent then we wouldn't have him! Great crowd @Chesterfield like everyone has mentioned..

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    1. If he was more consistent, Hampshire would have kept him. Our problem is that he's become another of our white ball only players.

      Although it was great to witness such a destructive innings, and see those Yorkshire supporters sloping off early yesterday, again! it's worth remembering we beat the second worse team in the group. The day before, we were shown the gulf in class between the top and bottom of the group.

      Yes, I'm delighted that we keep spanking Yorkshire at the home of cricket, but for me, the table doesn't lie, unfortunately.

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    2. The table doesn't lie too many of us but to be glass half full we beat a team above us🙂 and lost to a team with 5 England players in it.

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    3. 4 scores of 50+ in his last 7 innings striking at over 200, how consistent do you want someone to be in T20 cricket?

      I keep saying this, but I'd have him in the red ball team and drop one of medium pace all rounders, we don't need 3 of them - Dal on current form.

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    4. You’re right. Donald’s T20 form has been tremendous. Yet we still get people on here that moan he hasn’t “ taken it on “. I’d be more concerned about the majority of the batsmen who haven’t even scored one 50 ! We’ve only won three games and Donald has played a huge part in those victories. What a pity that others have not contributed in the same way as him. I also agree that he should be in the championship team
      Paul

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    5. Donald is clearly a class act in the blast , when he is out early on it is up to the rest of the line up to step up.
      I agree with Peak fan that Whiteley should probably be used higher up the order especially when chasing a tricky target. If it all goes horribly wrong then its down to Guest etc to steady the ship , though in 20-20 the chances of recovering after a poor start are not high.

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  17. Yes I’m biased yes I’ve been going to Queens Park since I was 5 years old (now 47) yes it’s my happy place yes it’s my home town but come on it’s the best, the finest, the most beautiful, the most gorgeous, the greatest please ever to watch Cricket it simply has no equal 💙

    John Chesterfield

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  18. When I first started watching cricket in the 60s the very idea that someone could score 50 in 13 balls was ridiculous. Only a super being from outer space could do that.
    Now 60 years on and it has been done, by a Derbyshire player no less.
    Out of this world!

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