Statistical Preview: Durham

Derbyshire welcome spectators back to the Incora County Ground for the first time in 20 months – that’s 610 days since the glorious win inside three days over Sussex in mid-September 2019.

They also welcome Durham as their visitors just a month after the two sides drew at Emirates Riverside, Chester-le-Street.

Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match and looks at the statistical highlights of the past.

There have been 30 fixtures between these two counties, the first at Chesterfield in 1992 when rain reduced the game to a one-innings match played on the final day; even that game was rain-interrupted and ended in a rather soggy draw.

The 1993 fixture at Durham’s Racecourse Ground was also drawn, again, as a result of inclement weather.

To date, Derbyshire have won six matches, Durham 13, with 11 draws.

Durham’s biggest win – by an innings and 79 runs at Darlington in 2000 was followed seven weeks later by Derbyshire’s biggest win, by 232 runs at Derby in a game which saw Dominic Cork make a magnificent, unbeaten 200, the highest score ever made by a Derbyshire player batting at number eight.

Derbyshire’s batsmen have made 16 hundreds against Durham, Michael Di Venuto leading the way with four, although the current squad have recent good memories with the bat against Durham – Matt Critchley, Alex Hughes and Luis Reece have all made hundreds against them, including Reece’s 122 at Chester-le-Street last August.

Derbyshire’s highest individual score in these games in Mohammad Azharuddin’s outstanding 205 in Derbyshire’s second innings at Chesterfield in 1994, when he struck six sixes in a display of the highest class.

Durham’s highest individual score came in the match at Chester-le-Street a month ago when David Bedingham scored 257, the 14th highest individual score ever made against Derbyshire.

Chris Adams scored a hundred before lunch at Chester-le-Street in 1997, the third time he had achieved the feat, a county record he holds with Kim Barnett, while Di Venuto is the sole Derbyshire batsman to score hundreds against Durham at home and away in the same season, scoring 150 at Chester-le-Street and 143 at Derby in 2003.

The highest partnership for any wicket is Di Venuto’s with Hasan Adnan in 2005 when they added 272 for the third wicket at Derby while the highest partnership for the tenth wicket is 66 by Richard Sladdin and Ole Mortensen at The Racecourse, Durham in 1993. And in 2002 Mohammad Ali registered the highest debut score by a batman batting at number nine when he made 53 against Durham at Derby.

With the ball, there have been 20 instances of bowlers taking five wickets in an innings, Dominic Cork heading that list with three, and Reece, of the current squad, taking 5-47 at Derby in 2019 when the home side won by 125 runs, and Sam Conners taking 5-83 in the recent draw at Chester-le-Street.

Three bowlers have taken 10 wickets in a match against Durham, Kevin Dean (10-105) at Chester-le-Street in 2001, Dominic Cork (10-126) at Derby in 2002 when he also scored 56, and Duanne Olivier (10-125) at Chester-le-Street in 2018; and Imran Tahir is the sole Derbyshire bowler to take five wickets on his debut against Durham, with 5-110 at Chesterfield in 2017.

Derbyshire’s last win at Derby was in April 2019 when Harvey Hosein scored half centuries in each innings and Luis Reece took 5-47 as the home side won by 125 runs.

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