Tue 27 Jul 2021
The County Ground
Derbyshire
200-9
Warwickshire
207-3
Derbyshire’s third match in the RL50 competition is against Warwickshire at Derby. Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match and looks at the statistical highlights of the past.
Derbyshire have beaten Warwickshire in each of their last three meetings in this competition, a run only bettered by Kim Barnett’s side which won four in a row between 1983 and 1986.
There have been 57 scheduled List A matches between these two sides, of which five were abandoned without a ball being bowled, and a further four which began but ended as a ‘No Result’.
Of the remaining 48, Derbyshire have won 21 games, and Warwickshire 27.
The first scheduled meeting was in 1969 in the newly-formed Players County League, but heavy rain at Edgbaston saw the game abandoned. A year later, in the re-named John Player League, Derbyshire won by 27 runs despite the presence of eight Test cricketers in the home sides’ line-up. However, Derbyshire’s own international opening bowlers, Alan Ward and Fred Rumsey took five wickets between them , conceding just 54 runs in 15.4 overs.
Derbyshire’s highest innings total is 357-8 in their 57-run win at Edgbaston in 2018 when Billy Godleman’s superb 137 anchored the county’s highest total against another first class county. Their two higher scores in this form of cricket were made against the Combined Universities and Cornwall.
Warwickshire’s highest innings total of 300 all out came in the same game.
Derbyshire’s lowest total was 93 all out in 16.5 overs at Birmingham in 1997 in a match limited to 21 overs, while Warwickshire’s lowest was 139 in a John Player League game at Edgbaston in 1975 when Phil Russell’s 4-22 did most of the damage.
Warwickshire have registered two lower totals, but they were in a winning cause.
Both sides have recorded a one-run victory; Warwickshire defending 190 in a Benson and Hedges Cup group match at Derby in 1977, and Derbyshire securing a crucial win in the midst of their successful 1990 Sunday League-winning campaign when they made an art form of winning close matches.
Derbyshire’s largest margin of victory by runs is 66 in the opening Benson and Hedges Cup match of the 1978 season at Ilkeston when Alan Hill made 102 and Eddie Barlow 75. Their record win by wickets is eight, on two occasions, in 1992 at Leek and 1996 at Derby.
Warwickshire, meanwhile, recorded a 116-run win in the quarter final of the NatWest Trophy at Derby in 1995, and registered a nine-wicket win at Edgbaston in a Clydesdale Bank 40 game at Edgbaston in 2012.
Just five Derbyshire players have recorded List A hundreds against Warwickshire with Godleman’s 137 leading the way; the other hundreds came from Hill, John Wright, John Morris, and Wayne Madsen.
Only one bowler has taken five wickets in an innings, Steffan Jones taking 5-49 at Edgbaston in the course of Derbyshire’s 9-run win in 2006.
Derbyshire’s batsmen have recorded 14 century partnerships with the 153 for the 3rd wicket by Hill and Barlow at Ilkeston in 1978 topping the list, while the most recent was 134 for the 4th wicket by Madsen and Alex Hughes at Derby in 2019.
Probably the finest of Derbyshire’s one day wins against Warwickshire came in the semi-final of the Benson and Hedges Cup in 1978. Having already met in the group stages when Derbyshire won at Ilkeston, when the sides met again in the semi-final, Derbyshire were in the midst of their finest-ever run of games in one day cricket.
Beginning with that season-opener, Derbyshire won 13 out of 15 matches, with one defeat (by two wickets) and a ‘no result.’
For a period, under the leadership of Eddie Barlow, Derbyshire were virtually invincible in the shorter forms of the game.
The Bensons semi-final – which went into a second day because of rain – saw Tony Borrington, a fine one-day batsman, score 77 opening the batting, an innings which earned him the Gold Award, before Derbyshire’s bowlers took charge.
Mike Hendrick, as mean with the ball in one day cricket as in first class matches, took the new ball and when Barlow rested him, he had figures of 8-6-2-2, ending with 2-14 from his 11 overs. Miller took 1-18 in 11 overs and also took an amazing catch at cover, before Barlow took three late wickets to ensure Derbyshire’s victory.
The scenes at the end of the game had to be seen to be believed; Derbyshire had reached Lord’s and within four weeks would be appearing in a one day final.
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.
