Statistical Preview: Glamorgan

Derbyshire welcome Glamorgan to Derby for the first time in one day cricket since September 2009, for the fourth Royal London Cup game of the season and the 50th scheduled List A game between the two sides. Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match and looks at the statistical highlights of the past.

Derbyshire and Glamorgan first clashed in one day cricket in a Gillette Cup quarter final tie at Cardiff in 1969 when Derbyshire won by nine wickets largely thanks to Harold Rhodes’ 4-18 and David Smith’s unbeaten 49 which saw them secure a home semi-final tie against Sussex at Chesterfield, about which many thousands of words have been written.

Derbyshire have won 28 of the first 49 games, with Glamorgan winning 16, plus three No Results, one Abandoned and a dramatic tie, at Derby in 1999.

The tied game, in the CGU National Cricket League, featured a brilliant 97 from Ian Blackwell, who was only 20 years old, and a regrettably confusing end. Following several rain showers, the Duckworth Lewis revision saw Derbyshire needing 206 off 44 overs to win, after Glamorgan had made 207-8.

When Derbyshire were dismissed for 205, therefore, having required 206 to win, the match ended in a tie. However, without an electronic scoreboard, and no D/L par score available on the old manual scoreboard, chaos ensued as the players of both sides left the field in the mistaken belief that Glamorgan had won.

Tight finishes are nothing new, however; Glamorgan won by one wicket at Derby in 2000, while Derbyshire won by one run, at Buxton in 1973, and twice by one wicket, at Cheadle in 1987 and Derby in 1995. The win at Cheadle was all the more remarkable for Ole ‘Stan’ Mortensen hitting the winning runs. Mortensen took 219 List A wickets for Derbyshire but scored a mere 145 runs and most observers were surprised when he struck the winning boundary.

The most dramatic and famous of all one-day encounters between these sides actually took place over three days at Swansea in 1988. Drawn to play in the Benson and Hedges Cup semi-final, rain delayed the start on the opening day, but with two reserve days available, the game was allowed to run its natural course of 55 overs per side.

Invited to bat on a grassy pitch, with overhead conditions suited to seam bowling, Derbyshire were well placed on 131-2 but when Kim Barnett was run out for 43, and Bruce Roberts was caught behind for 44, the innings struggled to 217-8 off 55 overs.

The Glamorgan batting line-up looked strong on paper with Alan Butcher, Matthew Maynard, Hugh Morris and the Indian Test player, Ravi Shastri in their top five, but Michael Holding reserved one of his finest performances for Derbyshire in this match.

The defining moment came when Maynard, batting in a helmet, but without a chin strap, was struck on the head by a short-pitched ball from the West Indian fast bowler. Maynard’s helmet was knocked off, dropped onto the stumps, and dislodged the bails. Maynard was out hit wicket and although Derbyshire’s winning margin of 14 runs appeared small, Devon Malcolm, Paul Newman, Mortensen, Allan Warner, and the sublime Holding, who ended with 5-31, were always in control as captain Barnett led his side through to the county’s first Lord’s final since 1981.

Derbyshire’s highest total against Glamorgan is 251 – three times – in 1991, 1995 and 2003, while Glamorgan’s highest score of 277 was at Ebbw Vale in 1984.

Derbyshire’s lowest completed innings total was also at Ebbw Vale in 1969 when they made just 96, while Glamorgan’s lowest was 42 all out at Swansea in 1979 when Peter Kirsten struck a superb 102 in Derbyshire’s 202-6 off 40 overs before the bowlers ran amok.

Colin Tunnicliffe took 1-12 from eight overs, Mike Hendrick bowled six overs and took 2-3, and Geoff Miller took 2-6 off 3.2 overs, although the honours went to the unheralded John Walters with a career-best 4-14.

Derbyshire’s first List A hundred was against Glamorgan, by Phil Sharpe (111*) at Chesterfield in 1976 and there have been a further five centuries, two of which came in the same game.

Chris Bassano’s 121 at Cardiff is the highest score, while John Wright as well as Kirsten both scored one in 1979, but in different matches.

Heanor was the venue for two hundreds in the same game when Barnett and John Morris both made 100 not out. In a finale of pure theatre, Derbyshire needed 16 to win with Morris on 82; Morris, a batsman with a real sense of occasion struck three sixes to take Derbyshire to victory and him to three figures.

Barnett’s 90* against Glamorgan at Newport in 1988 remains the highest individual score by a player carrying his bat for Derbyshire in one day cricket, while the highest partnership in these games was shared by Bassano and Andrew Gait who added 191 for the third wicket at Cardiff in 2003.

Dominic Cork’s 6-21 are the best figures for Derbyshire – at Chesterfield in 1997 – while aside from Holding’s 5-31 at Swansea in 1988, Graeme Welch is the only other bowler to take five wickets in an innings, for 22, at Derby in 2001.

One further statistic of note; between May 1972 and August 1981, Derbyshire won 13 consecutive one day games against Glamorgan.

Lastly, with Wayne Madsen injured (although otherwise he’d have been unavailable anyway owing to his planned stint in The Hundred) it means that no Derbyshire player – other than Billy Godleman – has ever played a List A match against Glamorgan, and Godleman’s only game was back in 2007, for Middlesex at Lord’s.

Watch Derbyshire in the Royal London Cup!

50-over cricket returns to Derbyshire this month, with tickets on sale now for all home games, including the local derby against Nottinghamshire at The Incora County Ground and the fixture against Yorkshire Vikings at Queen’s Park, Chesterfield.