v Derbyshire CC2 @ Derby 7 August 2005

Scorecard

When we play away and the game seems doomed to be a draw by the middle/end of Day 2, I tend to do a brief report at the end of the game to summarise the main points of the contest.  That is what I planned to do on this momentus day after getting over the 2 run victory in the Edgbaston test.  This is what usually happens but it looks like the Blackwell era is going to be a bit different.  Setting chase targets that teams go for and then beating them to it is not usual!!  Got to change my plans now because we've just pulled off a win and 21 points from nowhere.

OK let's start from scratch.  We won the toss and elected to bat.  Same side as the one day team that lost the day before.  This was an important game because the Championship had become the competition where we had a chance of something after our one day defeat - that killed any chance we had there.  Ian Blackwell was captain in his first four day game but his Vice captain, Matt Wood didn't have a great start as he was first out for 4 with 6 on the board.  Derbyshire's bowlers are not the most feared on the circuit, but they must have been bouyed up by their victory on the Wednesday.  We needed every point we could get and when John Francis followed his VC with 31 up, it didn't look like we were going to get many.

Arul Suppiah proved to his home audience on Wednesday that he can hold his bat the right way around and do a job at number 3 in a one day side.  Now they were testing him in the Championship!  What's more, the openers hadn't made much of a stand and he was it with James Hildreth (a new number 4)!  No pressure at all really.  Soooo...the best thing to do was to put on a stand of 145 with his young companion (who went at 176 for 73) and then continue with another 112 with Hilda's replacement, the other debutant, Wes Durston.

The first Malaysian century maker in first class cricket did it on Championship debut and finally fell for an excellent 123 off 255 balls (workman-like to say the least).  By the time he went, Wes was well set and we had solved our "who will bat at Number 3" conundrum for a few weeks at least.  IB came in but didn't last long at his old haunt and it was Wesley who managed the rest of the batting line-up while clocking up his own debut Championship century with considerable help in the form of 35 at a run a ball from Richard Johnson.  It was a shame that the tail couldn't stay around until WD reached 150, Gray had Caddick and Langeveldt with Wes on 146 but the two new boys helped push the score to 460 and we thought we wouldn't bat again.

Wrong.  Derbyshire went into steam roller mode.  Not running over us but batting at the speed of a steam-roller!  On and on the turgid innings went.  If you can't win then bore the opposition to death!  Although we tried manfully, Caddick in particular with 4 for 102, we seemed to lose our momentum after Sutton went for 1.  148 for 5 looked like a follow on score in the offing but Friend didn't go for another 77 and after Welch was dismissed, the 8th wicket put on a massive 170 with Botha making 91.  Nearly three days down and not a lot to play for as Derbyshire declared on 438 for 8.

What to do with a day and a bit?  120 odd overs to while away and no possibility of rain?  Well we decided to make a fist of it and went for a score we could declare on that would give them something to chase that they might be interested in.  We were 22 runs ahead so we looked to bat until about lunchtime on the fourth day and then give them something with about 50 overs to get it in and bowl them out.

IT didn't start well.  Wood only added 10 to his first innings score but John got some runs and after Arul went for 14, JH added 30 and WD another 44.  It was only when Cap'n Blackwell came in though that the fireworks started.  88 off 85 balls with 12 fours and 3 sixes gave us a 200 plus lead and we finally declared on 245 leaving them 47 overs to get 267 to win.  In the context of the team to declare when you're only 12 from a century is a selfless act and the action of a man who captain's that team rather than goes for personal glory.  In the context of the game it was much more important as we shall see later.  The mark of the man that Ian Blackwell is I suggest. 

Would Luke Sutton go for it or play safe as they had in the first innings.  The odds were against it when France and Botha (promoted up the order) both went to the spin of Blackwell and Durston  repsectively.  By 111 they had also lost Stubbings (Johnson) and you would have expected them to shut up shop.

However, a 95 run partnership between Adnan and Moss put them over the 200 mark and they must have seen the winning mark on the horizon because the run chase continued. Blackwell got Adnan at 206 but didn't end Moss's contribution until he'd passed his ton at 247.  20 to win and 5 wickets in hand.  Blacky's gamble looked doomed.  That is until Caddick bowled Friend 2 runs later, Welch was run out at 250, Blackwell had Gray at 253, Caddick bowled Hunter at 255 and the captain was run out trying to scramble the last 5 runs at 262.  Thrown it away?  Well it suggests good bowling and awesome fielding - something we can claim these days!

We took 5 wickets for 15 runs in 22 minutes - and 16 minutes of that was the last wicket partnership between Sutton and Havell.  Great gamble, great win and our promotion programme is still on track!

Now we have to see if we can do it against the big boys as we invite Yorkshire to tilt at Fortress Taunton!!  Last year, about this time we took them in 3 days...just thought I'd mention it!

Well played Arul Suppiah and Wes Durston.  Andrew Caddick almost took his 1000th wicket (999 and counting) - it will happen next week no doubt.  He did manage 6 for 168 and his captain played an allrounder's role (like someone else, somewhere else) with an innings of 88 to get us a total and 4 for 86 to put them to bed! Great work guys!

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