Derbyshire begin their 2019 Specsavers County Championship campaign on Friday 5 April at The Pattonair County Ground, Derby, with a fixture against Durham.
Heritage Officer, David Griffin, looks at the statistical background to the game.
Derbyshire’s first encounter with Durham was actually in a limited overs game, before the latter had obtained first-class status. That was a memorable visit for Durham to Derby in the NatWest Trophy competition in 1985, when they triumphed as a Minor County by seven wickets.
Some six years later, Durham were a first-class county and their seventh County Championship game was against Derbyshire at Chesterfield. Unfortunately, rain dominated proceedings, and although a single innings game was started on the final day, even that couldn’t be completed as the weather had the final say.
The two sides have met previously on 26 occasions at first-class level, with Derbyshire winning five matches, Durham nine matches and 12 drawn games.
Derbyshire’s highest score in matches between the two counties is 539-7 in the second innings of the game in 2005 – the second highest score ever made by Derbyshire in the second innings of a game. That total included 203 by Michael Di Venuto and 106 by Hasan Adnan.
Their highest score in the first innings was made at Derby in 2018, when 6 players scored between 45 and 85 runs, although nobody made a century in the all-out total of 427.
Durham’s highest total against Derbyshire is 625-6d at Chesterfield in 1994, a game which the visitors won, and in which Mohammad Azharrudin made a spectacular 205 for Derbyshire – the highest individual score by a Derbyshire player against Durham.
Durham’s highest second innings score in games between the two sides is 376 in the topsy-turvy encounter at Chester-le-Street in 2018, when Durham won by 95 runs having been bowled out for 96 in their first innings.
Dominic Cork made the highest-ever score by a batsmen batting at number 8 for Derbyshire, when he scored 200 not out against Durham in the win at Derby in 2000.
Kim Barnett scored a record 53 first class hundreds for Derbyshire and scored at least one against all the other first class counties with the exception of Durham, against whom his highest score was 98 at Derby in 1998 in his final season with the county.
Graeme Welch’s 6-30 at Chester-le-Street in 2001 is still the best bowling analysis in an innings for Derbyshire, while Kevin Dean grabbed six wickets in the second innings of that game and ended the match with 10-105, the best match analysis for Derbyshire against Durham.
Duanne Olivier also took ten in the match – for 125 runs – in the game at Chester-le-Street in 2018, and Dominic Cork took 10-126 at Derby in 2002.
Imran Tahir is the sole Derbyshire bowler to take five wickets on his debut against Durham, recording figures of 5-110 at Chesterfield in 2017.
Derbyshire’s last first class win against Durham was at Chester-le-Street in 2004 when Jon Moss’ unbeaten 147 led the way, backed up by Mo Sheikh’s six wickets in the match.
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