Statistical Preview: Lincolnshire

Derbyshire play a 50-over fixture against Lincolnshire at Lincoln on Sunday 30^th July as a curtain-raiser to the Metro Bank One Day Cup competition.

Heritage Officer David Griffin looks back at the previous – and only – fixture between the two counties.

In 1997 the NatWest Trophy still included minor counties in the opening round of the competition, providing a potential banana skin for first class counties.

Derbyshire slipped to defeat against Durham, then still a minor county, at Derby in the opening round in 1985, and succumbed to Hertfordshire in a bowl-out at Bishops Stortford at the same stage in 1991, so mishaps were not uncommon as other counties had also discovered.

However, when they travelled to Lincoln for their fixture on 24^th June 1997 Derbyshire were under huge scrutiny following the departure of Dean Jones, the captain. After a magnificent summer in 1996 when Derbyshire finished second in the Championship, their best finish for sixty years, 1997 had started with a whimper and rumours of discontent within the dressing room spread like wildfire. The upshot was that Jones left and Philip DeFreitas took over as skipper.

His charges for this game included Kim Barnett, Chris Adams, Adrian Rollins, Karl Krikken, Devon Malcolm, and Andrew Harris while their opponents included former Nottinghamshire cricketers Russell Evans and Mark Fell. The latter had played for Derbyshire too, appearing in eight all formats’ games in 1985.

A crowd of around 2,000 were present when DeFreitas won the toss and elected to bowl first, although several locals expressed their displeasure at the decision; they wanted to see Derbyshire bat for sixty overs before – they assumed – Lincolnshire would be blown away by the Derbyshire pace attack. However, this was not, as several Derbyshire players reminded them, a benefit match.

Malcolm and DeFreitas had opened the bowling together for England in a Test match and they quickly demonstrated their quality as Malcolm’s pace was too much for both openers who were comprehensively bowled before DeFreitas removed Evans to leave the hosts on 14 for three.

There was no relief when the opening bowlers were rested with Paul Aldred and Andrew Harris taking over while Paul Rawden was run out by Chris Adams off the only ball he faced.

Peter Trent, the Lincolnshire wicketkeeper spent eight overs making nought and when lunch came the score was 83 for seven.

Aldred claimed the best figures of four for 30 including two wickets in two balls as the home side closed on 116 all out off 50.2 overs.

Adrian Rollins and Johnny Owen opened for Derbyshire, but it was Adams with a blistering 71 not out from 44 balls including four massive sixes who ensured there was no slip up for Derbyshire as they secured a comprehensive eight wicket win, taking only 19 overs to reach the target.

The game – as predicted by some Lincolnshire spectators – ended shortly before 4pm at which point Trevor Bailey, the former England and Essex allrounder presented Adams with the Man of the Match award.

The game on Sunday won’t be classed as a formal List A game and player’s performances will be discounted from their career records.

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All four Metro Bank One Day Cup home games are included in our new 8 for £80 bundle.

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