Yorkshire v Derbyshire County Championship Div 2 June 11-15

Neil Whitaker reports

Day 1

MATTHEW Fisher took his first five wicket haul in the LV County Championship this season and his best Championship figures as Derbyshire were skittled out for Nelson in less than 32 overs before lunch but after nine overs they were six down for 24.

Fisher comprehensively bowled Ben Aitchison to wrap the Derbyshire innings up and finish with five for 30. His opening partner Ben Coad took three for 30 and it was Coad who got the initial breakthrough in the first over.  After winning the toss and deciding to field, Coad got a wicket with the fifth ball of the day  when he got one to swing back in at Haider Ali  who was leg before.  

Fisher said: “Earlier in the season I wasn’t happy with my rhythm but today I got the rewards with both seam and swing.  Before the toss the spikes were going in on the pitch so it had been watered and not dried out,  we won the toss and decided to bowl. It’s great to bowl with Coad because he’s always building pressure, but it’s nice that I finally clicked. At the moment I am just concentrating on playing for Yorkshire so I am not bothering about England.

I didn’t think that we would score at the rate we did. We just want to keep building the pressure but there’s no rush, we've just to score as many runs as we can.”

The hosts lost their second wicket in the next over when Brooke Guest edged Fisher to give stumper Jonny Tattersall, playing his first Championship match of the season, a comfortable catch

Things got better for Yorkshire when they got rid of the dangerous Wayne Madsen for four after  Coad squared him up and bowled him with one that left him.  When Coad was bowling second, third and gully all wore hemelts.

Tattersall took his second catch again off Fisher when the pair combined to get rid of Harry Came. Matt Lamb edged Fisher to Adam  Lyth at second slip who juggled it twice before George Hill helped him out and took the catch and the Derbyshire batting card looked like a phone number. Luis  Reece missed a straight ball from Coad, who was bowling around the wicket, and was leg before.

Jordan Thompson got a wicket when bowling around the wicket to Derbyshire captain Leus Du Ploy, who fell over in his shot and was leg before.

When Alex Thomson was on two Coad angled one in him who edged to Lyth at second slip but as he began to  walk to the hutch Lyth dropped it.  He got a leading edge to Jordan Thompson  which went to the boundary.  But his luck ran out when  he tried to turn the next ball to leg but got another leading edge and Thompson took a sharp return catch.

Tattersall took his third catch of the innings when Mark  Watt edged Fisher to him 15 minutes before lunch.

Yorkshire captain Shan Masood returned to haunt his former club by hitting 67. He drove Alex Thomson straight to the mid off boundary to bring up his first First class 50 for 10 matches from 46 balls with eight fours.  With David Malan they added 112 in overs as they stood on the throats of the Derbyshire players.  Malan went on to share in another three 50 partnership’s and was unbeaten on 70 when drove the players off the field with over five overs left.

The Yorkshire openers made a breezy start to their reply reaching 57 in the 11th over before Finlay Bean flashed at Reece and Aitchison at first slip took a sharp catch moving to his left.

Lyth went down the pitch to Thomson and smashed him straight over the long off boundary for a six.  He looked at ease and produced the shot of the day when he drove Aitchison to the cover boundary. Looking set for a 50 he fell two short when he edged Aitchison to Madsen at second slip just as they  past the Derbyshire score.

Malan cut Watt to the point boundary to bring up his 50 from 58 balls with eight fours and a six.

Hill got off the mark with a straight six off Thomson.  He repeated the shot off Watt in the next over but found Haider Ali at mid off who took a good catch looking into the sun, he even had time to throw off his hat.  Tattersall featured the fourth  50 partnership of the innings before he gave a return catch to Reece who did his best to drop it juggling  with it four times before taking the catch.

Day 2

A DERBYSHIRE record fifth wicket partnership against Yorkshire  between Haider Ali, who hit his first Championship century for Derbyshire, and Captain Leus Du Ploy rescued the Derbyshire second innings after they had slumped to 17 for four in the eighth over. 


Trailing by 242 Derbyshire made a worse start to their second innings than they did to their first.  Derbyshire rejigged their batting order with Luis Reece opening with Harry  Came because Haider Ali has struggled against the new ball, then at the fall of Came’s wicket when he was leg before to Ben Coad in the third over Matty  Lamb  was promoted to number three.   Reece was soon back in the hutch leg before to Matthew  Fisher with one that kept low.


Wayne Madsen pushed at Coad to give Adam  Lyth at second slip catching practice.  Three overs later Lamb was squared up by Fisher who took his edge to give George  Hill a comfortable catch at knee height.



With long odds against the match going into a third day Haider Ali went down the pitch to Dom Bess, got a leading edge and still managed to get a straight six.  He drove Matt Revis to the  backward point boundary to bring up his 50 from 60 with eight fours and a six.  In the penultimate over before tea Haider Ali used his feet to Bess and launched over long on for a six.  He swept Bess to the fine leg boundary 128 balls 16 fours two sixes


Du Ploy reached his 50 from 61 balls with  10 fours when he drove Bess to the mid wicket boundary.


The partnership was on 231 when bad light stopped play 35 minutes before the schedule breaking 184 made by John Egger and Alan Revill at Bradford in 1949 could have been broken on 186 when Du Ploy glanced Fisher off his legs and was called through for a single leg by Haider Ali who just beat the throw.




Resuming on 272 for five Derbyshire didn’t manage to get a breakthrough despite the ohs and ah’s from Mark Watt every time that he induced a false shot from Dawid Malan and Revis.  But he managed to get another four wickets to finish with five for 53, his first five wicket Championship haul. 


An outside edge from Malan off Watt took Malan to 99 and the Yorkshire lead past 200. Malan  guided Watt through the covers for a couple to bring up his  first Championship century since the opening match of the season when he hit 132 against Leicestershire.  He became the first of Watt’s victim’s on Monday when he danced down the pitch  to Watt and guided him to Ranasinghe Lakmal who took a great diving catch at mid off.


Jordan Thompson blasted a quick 17 from 20 balls before he blasted Watt to Du Ploy at short mid on. Watt wrapped the Yorkshire innings up on the stroke of lunch when Fisher skied  him to Haider Ali at mid off. 



Watt said: “It feels pretty good to get my first Championship five for, I’ve now got  the full set, a championship, T20 and one Cup five for.  I’d much prefer to  bowl to batters  who are prepared to take me on rather than those who block. We’re happy with the way the boys batted in the afternoon and we hope we can take into the fourth day which will  bring the spinners into play.”


Bess came and went in the blink of an eye and soon followed Malan back into the hutch the over after Malan when he pushed forward at Alex Thomson was beaten on the outside of his bat and was bowled.


Revis chased a wide delivery from Ben Aitchison and edged him to stumper Brooke Guest.


 Coad said: “We knew that we had to strike with the new ball because when it gets older not a lot happens  and it gets a lot easier. It's great bowling with Fisher and it’s been a great game for us.  Today I bowled too many bad balls and I got  cut and pulled too many times and we know that we haven’t bowled well today.  Tomorrow we have to be more disciplined.”

Day 3

SO we go into the final which on Monday didn’t look likely with Yorkshire needing another 65 to win with captain Sham Masood unbeaten on 68 and Derbyshire needing four more wickets 


Yorkshire assistant coach Ali Maiden said: “With Shan Masood batting we are in a good position, he’s a good player of spin and when he’s there we are always in the game. We are confident, we  didn’t expect the pitch to play as it did after the first day, it has flattened out.  We knew that it was going to be easier to play seam, the challenge was to play spin.  But we come back tomorrow.”


Derbyshire added another 205 runs with captain Leus  Du Ploy hitting his highest score for Derbyshire of 170 before he was seventh out on 404  when he edged a drive off Dom Bess and Adam Lyth at slip took a comfortable catch. 


After 17 minutes of play Du Ploy reached his century when he pulled Matt Fisher to the square boundary bisecting Ben Coad and  Jordan Thompson.  His third Championship century of the season came from 182 balls and included 15 fours.

Du Ploy and Haider Ali carried on  where they left off on Monday and with Yorkshz not looking like taking a wicket it was George Hill  who broke the partnership when he trapped Haider Ali leg before on the stroke of noon but it took umpire Chris Watts an age to raise his finger. His 146 came from 193 balls and included two sixes and 22 fours and with  Du Ploy they added 247  in 70 overs for the fifth wicket.

With his new partner Brooke Guest, Du Ploy still looked comfortable and they added 68 in 25 overs Yorkshire were looking like they didn't know where they would get a wicket from until the umpires changed the ball.   Guest played Bess off his back foot to the fourth ball with the new ball and  the ball looped to substitute Ben Cliff at silly mid on.  

Leading by 212 last batter Ranasinghe Lakmal ducked into a bouncer from Matthew Fisher which didn’t rise as much as Lakmal expected to and had  to retire hurt and was replaced by Zak Chappell as a concussion replacement, but because he is a better batter than Lakmal he couldn’t bat but could bowl and so Lakmal was retired out and Derbyshire declared leaving Yorkshire 212 to win.

Alex Thomson launched Bess over off for a six.  A couple overs later he drove Bess over long on into the lake and was unbeaten on 39 when Derbyshire had to declare their innings.

Watt top edged a reverse sweep off Bess, with Tattersall taking the catch, Ben Aitchison drove Fisher and Revis took a good sprawling catch at cover were the other wickets to fall.



Yorkshire lost their first wicket when Finlay  Bean drove Thomson  and Du Ploy took a low catch at cover.  Sham Masood got off the mark when he edged the next ball which just evaded the diving Wayne Madsen at slip.

The return of Mark Watt into the attack produced a wicket immediately when he trapped Lyth leg before.  Shan Masood played him out into the offside and set off for a single after a round of yes/no Hill couldn’t beat Aitchison’s throw and was run out for a duck.

That woke Shan Masood up as he hit Aitchison for 10 in an over.  He reached his second 50 of the match from 45 balls with seven fours when he pushed Thomson to mid on for a single.  He consecutive fours off Thomson the first through mid off and the second a one bounce four over long on.

After adding 56 in 10 overs with Shan Masood, Jonny Tattersall played back to pull  Thomson but missed the ball which kept low and was plumb leg before.  With 67 needed, night watchman Matt Fisher was bowled by a quicker ball from Watt.  Maiden added: “He got one that didn’t bounce.”

In the final over of the day Revis pushed forward at Watt and Madsen at slip took a low catch

Day 4

AT last a LV Insurance County Championship victory for Yorkshire 14 months after their last with a three wicket victory over neighbours Derbyshire at Chesterfield.


Seeing them home was captain Shane Masood who hit an unbeaten 95 and Dom Bess who hit the winning run with a boundary through mid wicket off Alex Thomson.  The pair added 58 in 14 overs with Bess not out on 45.



Head coach Ottis Gibson said: “It’s great to win a game, it’s been a long time coming, but winning is hard when you’ve got a developing team. To have Shane Masood at the crease at the end and all his experience made all the difference.  Before play started we said that we needed one good partnership to get us over the line. 


After losing Dawid Malan to the first ball I was pleased for Bess.  He’s not had the best of matches with the ball but I’ve said to him that as an all rounder if you don’t do it with the ball you’ve got a chance with the bat.  He was positive and kept the scoreboard moving.  He did what he needed to and he batted with a lot of confidence.


I think we have played some good cricket in this match and it’s a little bit of validation of the work we have put in. For Derbyshire I thought Leus Du Ploy and Haider Ali played well and we let them get away from us.”




Head of Derbyshire Cricket Mickey Arthur said. “I thought we fought our way back into the game and put ourselves in a position where we could have won it.  We got it right with our selection of playing two spinners but we needed to have batted better to put ourselves in a better position.  We got bowled out for a score which was a lot less than we expected. We needed  to be tougher against  the new ball and to get to lunch on the first day.  In the second innings we lost the same phase of play if we had scored 60 more runs we would have won the game.


I thought Du Ploy and Haider  Ali were outstanding with proper batting. They showed how to commit to attack and defend.”



Needing four wickets to win, Derbyshire got off to a dream start in the first over when Malan swept the first ball of the morning to Matt Lamb at short leg to put  Mark Watt on hat trick.


On 76 Yorkshire captain Sham Masood’s heart must have been in his mouth when he missed a sweep off Watt and appeared to be given out by Umpire  Chris Watts,with Shan Mason motionless the umpire appeared to change his mind but he was telling Watt to get off the pitch.


Bess drove a half volley from Thomson to the long off boundary to take the required runs 30 and the runs came easy.  Shan Masood clipped  Zak Chappell off his toes to the square leg boundary and flayed his bat at the next for a couple to take another 10 off the runs required.  Bess danced down the pitch to Thomson to bring the 200 up with a boundary over mid on.




 

SCORECARD