Yorkshire v Derbyshire August 2020

BOB WILLIS TROPHY Yorkshire v Derbyshire at Headingley Leeds 1th-18th

Neil Whitaker reports

Day 1

AN UNBROKEN fifth wicket partnership of 174 in 44 overs between new signing Dawid Malan and Jonny Tattersall swung the first day shortened by bad light Yorkshire’s way after they had struggled in the morning.

Malan hit his 26th first class century and his first century for Yorkshire on his home debut. He clipped Ben Aitchison for a couple through mid wicket to bring up his ton off 135 balls in 216 minutes and included 15 fours.  That couple also brought up the hundred partnership with Tattersall.  Tattersall followed his fifty in his last innings at Trent Bridge with another fifty.

Malan came in the 16th over with Yorkshire two down for only 40 and already the floodlights were on. He replaced Jonny Bairstow who was caught behind by Harvey Hosein off Anuj Dal. Dal’s first over was a beauty he got two leading edges of Adam Lyth, then beat him outside his off stump and finished the over by getting one to jag back in at  Bairstow.  In his next over Dal got his first wicket of the season when Bairstow without moving his  edged a drive off him to Hosein. 

It wasn’t a comfortable innings by Bairstow.  On two he drove Aitchison to Billy Godleman at mid off. It looked a comfortable catch for the Derbyshire skipper but it proved to be too hot for him to cling on to.  After clipping Dustin Melton through mid wicket boundary for a four, the next ball reared up at Bairstow who did well not to get a touch on it.

Malan clipped Aitchison off his legs for a glorious four, the bowler had some kind of pay back with his next ball when he squared Malan up with his next ball but the ball squarted through the slips and ran to the boundary. Malan eased Matt Critchley through the covers for a sublime boundary. He clipped Dal off his toes for another mid wicket boundary which was equally as good as his previous boundary.

In the seventh after lunch Derbyshire finally broke the Lyth/ Malan partnership when Lyth was squared up by Michael Cohen as Lyth played him from his crease and Cohen found his outside edge and Hosein took a comfortable catch.

Three balls later and without adding to the score Harry Brook hung his bat to one angled across him and Wayne  Madsen at first slip took a tumbling catch.

Tattersall turned Alex  Hughes off his leg for one of his five boundaires in his fifty which came from122 balls.  He had a nast scare on two when Cohen bowled a  beamer to Tattersall on two who did well to play the ball with his bat by using soft hands.  Cohen apologised immeadiately.

A fluke inside edge by Tattersall off Dal deceived Hosein and ran to the boundary.

Malin turned Critchley off his legs for a single to bring up the fifty partnership with Tattersall off 94 balls.

Tattersall said: “We played pretty well to keep us just four down all the way through to the close.   We’re really pleased with how it’s gone, and Malan’s obviously shown his class there and gone through the gears.  I played second fiddle and was trying to give him the strike and keep ticking over. He’s so easy to bat with, and it takes the pressure off me.

We grinded them into the dirt, and hopefully we can do the same tomorrow. Early on with the new ball it was definitely doing a bit, as you would expect. That’s standard Headingley really.  It was quite dark throughout the day, and visibility wasn’t the easiest at times. Their left-armer (Cohen) was a bit slippery.  You just had to be patient, work hard and get through your first 30 balls. Once I did that, it seemed to just flatten out a bit. That may have been their bowlers tiring. We just managed to get on top of them and didn’t give them a chance to build many maidens.”

Following their victories in the first two matches on a gloomy morning Derbyshire skipper Godleman won the toss and put Yorkshire into bat. He had immeadiate success with a wicket in the second over.  Tom Kohler-Cadmore tried to to get his bat out of the way of a delivery from Aitchison but couldn’t and  Critchley at third slip took a comfortable low catch.

In Cohen’s second over Lyth hit him for consecutive sixes over square leg which saw Cohen taken out of the attack.  When he did comeback he bowled that beamer.

Day 3

YORKSHIRE’S  new signing Dawid Malan his first, first class double ton at Emerald Headingley.

In the last two seasons Malan has loved batting against Derbyshire.  Last year at Derby he hit 199 for Middlesex.  He became the third Yorkshire player to hit a double ton against Derbyshire in their last three first class encounters.  Joe Root hit 236 at Emerald Headingley in 2013 and later in the same season Alex Lees made 275 at Chesterfield.

Play got underway on time on the third day, Malan and Jonny Tattersall added 18 in seven overs to their  overnight score before Tattersall drilled a full toss from Matt Critchley to Anuj  Dal in the covers.  Their partnership realised 200 in 51 overs with Tattersall’s 66 coming off 168 balls with six fours.

Malan smashed leg spinner  Critchley over mid wicket for a six to take him to 190. He threw the kitchen sink at Leus Du Plooy to reach his double century.  He repeated the shot off the next two  balls with the same result.  Du Plooy’s next two balls were deposited for sixes.  Malan tried to get a third six in the over but was caught on the boundary by Ben Aitchison.  His innings lasted just over six hours, he faced 244 balls with 28 fours and four sixes.

He was aided in the end by Jordan Thompson who was unbeaten on 36 from 52 balls in just over an hour.  Thompson cut Critchley to the boundary to bring up Yorkshire’s fourth batting point and pulled Michael Cohen over the fine leg boundary for a six.  When Yorkshire reached  400 Yorkshire captain Steve Patterson declared.

Yorkshire’s first  X1 coach Andrew Gale said: “Dawid played well.  It’s the sort of innings and the reason why we signed him – you lose a couple of quick wickets and your experienced player plays the situation nicely.

He looked good in the two days of preparation leading up to the game. He’s very much a feel sort of player, and he said he felt good going into the game. This Derbyshire attack, is quite young and inexperienced. I felt if we could defend our stumps, they would give us balls to hit. He looked really fluent and latched onto anything that was wide or full.”

There’s a saying in cricket that  to get a good idea of how the batting side are doing add two wickets to score.  And that was the case in Derbyshire’s first  innings. First their openers Tom Wood and skipper Billy  Godleman put on 58, Derbyshire’s highest opening partnership in the competition.  Then in the 11th over after lunch Wood played a tentative forward push at Thompson and the ball looped back to the bowler for his 10th wicket of the competition.  

13 balls later and without adding to the score Derbyshire lost their second wicket when Wayne Madsen played down the wrong line to Patterson and was leg before for his 30th first class duck.

Godleman was joined by Du Plooy and they took Derbyshire into tea without any further loss.  But Yorkshire had a couple of chances to get rid of the Derbyshire skipper.  On 20 he edged Duanne Olivier just short off Tom  Kohler-Cadmore at first slip.  Two runs away from his fifty he nibbled at one that came back in at him from George Hill, an all rounder who played for England under 19’s World Cup played in South Africa at the beginning of the year making his debut.

After tea Derbyshire again lost two wickets in quick succession.  Du Plooy didn’t move his feet and played Patterson away from his body edged him to Kohler-Cadmore at first slip who took a tumbling catch. 10 balls later Godleman pushed at Patterson to give Jonny  Bairstow standing up an easy catch.

Alex Hughes had to streatch to reach a short ball from Dominic Leech and got too far under it. The ball went up in the air and Olivier took the catch at mid on. They were now five wickets down with 49 still needed to avoid the follow on.

Harvey Hosein and Critchley inched their way to saving the follow on but after adding 22 in six overs Olivier got his first wicket of the innings.  Hosein moved across his stumps and hung out his bat and Bairstow took a good catch diving to his right.

Dal pulled Olivier three times in an over to the boundary, twice behind square and once in front to take them to 190.  With three runs needed to save the follow on and three overs left in the day the umpires took the players off the field for bad light.

Gale added: “It’s hard to know how we’ll play it from here. It just depends on how much time we lose moving forwards. The forecast looks a bit mixed.  There’s still enough time left in the game to get a result if we don’t lose any more time.”

Only one over was possible on day two in which Malan hit two boundaires which took his score past 150. Play didn’t start until 3.00 and after that over the umpires took the players off the field for bad light and called play for the day shortly before 5.00.

Day 4

DERBYSHIRE stay top of the Northern group of the Bob Willis trophy two points ahead of second place Yorkshire after their rain ruined match at Emerald Headingley.

Play finally got underway on the final day at 2.30 with 42 overs lost, bringing the total lost to 132 and the burning question was could Yorkshire get the remaining four Derbyshire wickets before they could get the three runs to avoid the follow on?

The answer came in no time.  Matt Critchley steared  the third ball of the day from Duanne Olivier for a boundary through third man which avoided the prospect of the follow on and gave them their first batting point. 

Now could Yorkshire bowl Derbyshire out without many more run runs and then bat quickly to get another go at them.  Again Yorkshire failed as they found Critchley and Anju Dal immovable forces as they added 80 runs to their overnight score in 31 overs.

Critchley made his 13th first class fifty which came from 127 balls with five fours in two minutes shy of three hours.With nine overs remaining in the Derbyshire first innings he got an inside tickle to one from Dominic  Leech which knocked his off stump out of the ground. 

Dal was in trouble against Olivier early on. He nearly played on but he quickly recovered and knocked the ball away before it rolled on to his stumps and he was nearly cut in two by Olivier with one that came back in.

Pressing for a third batting point Dal had a rush of blood to his head went down the wicket to Adam  Lyth and lofted him just over Steve  Patterson at deep mid off for a four. When Derbyshire reached their third batting point they declared.

Yorkshire skipper Patterson said: “We are in a strong position in terms of the group, but a lot can happen yet.  We won our first two games without playing our best cricket, and we’ve now effectively lost a game to the weather. You can potentially win the group and not go to the final anyway, and from my perspective it’s all about the level we play.

I was pleased with the way the lads went about it in this match after we lost the toss and were put into bat in difficult conditions. To go on and get 400 and maximum batting points was a wonderful achievement, and then I thought with the ball we worked really hard and stuck to our task with a young attack.

It was very pleasing to see Dawid Malan go on and get a double hundred.  We signed him because we knew he was a high-quality player, and he proved that this week. We knew we were probably short of one senior batter, and he’s settled in quickly and done really well.  We’ve got a number of young lads who’ve got a lot of ability and potential, but Malan brings that much needed experience as well.”

With no rain possible on the fourth morning Yorkshire’s Malan said his maiden double ton was one of his most satisfying innings.

He said: “It feels awesome, I’ve said before, when you come to a new team, you want to lay your marker down, score some runs to feel at home at the club, to gain the respect and trust of the players. To do it in the way I’ve done it here is awesome.

A double hundred is something which has eluded me for quite a time in my career, so to come and do that on my home debut for Yorkshire is a hell of a feeling.  I’m a bit tired to enjoy it at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll enjoy it as the week goes on.

It’s definitely up there as one of best innings. I’ve had some innings I’ve really enjoyed, but to do it on your home debut makes it extra special.”

FULL SCORECARD

August 24, 2020 7:33 pm

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