Yorkshire vs Derbyshire T20 review

For half of this game, Derbyshire played good T20 cricket as they restricted Yorkshire to ‘just’ 119 runs in 20 overs.

Then, easing to victory at 56-1 in the ninth over, we managed to slip to 70-7 in the thirteenth in a pretty shambolic effort. Irrespective of the difficulties presented by the wicket, how could we go from coasting it to nearly lost in four overs?

The bowlers did well earlier, with Albie Morkel bowling a particularly good spell, though I’m perhaps as baffled as the rest of you as to why he didn’t bowl the last over after three for just nine runs, unless he had a slight niggle. I assume that was it, with Dan Redfern being bowled for the first time at the end of the innings.

It was an all-round professional bowling display, with spinners and seamers alike keeping control on a wicket that seemed far from ideal for T20 cricket – or at least the sort that the marketing men espouse to the potential fan base.

It’s a funny game though. Brooks bowled well, but I cannot defend losing six wickets in eighteen balls at any level of the game. I’ll confess to preparing this piece for a defeat when we reached 70-7, Morkel’s departure seeming to signal the end.

Yet in our time of need, salvation came from an unlikely – at least in T20 – source. Jon Clare’s top T20 score in twenty previous innings was a mere 18, while Tim Groenewald’s batting appeared to have gone back a bit this year, his willow less obdurate than in previous summers.

After David Wainwright departed at 92 at the end of the seventeenth, the two combined to add 28 from the next fifteen balls, so diametrically opposed to what had gone before as to be quite extraordinary. Clare extended his personal tournament best to an unbeaten 35, while Groenewald lent valuable support at the other end. It was an impressive knock from Clare, who kept the strike beautifully in the penultimate over and took responsibility in a manner that was good to see.

It was a winning start, but they will need to improve dramatically tomorrow for the TV cameras at Leicester. Tougher challenges await, but at the end of a dramatic match, we took the points.

To be honest, against a county where two of their most famous alumni ‘got ‘em in singles’ in a tight finish, we’ll gladly take a barnstorming conclusion after a mid-innings plummet worthy of St Moritz.

All of a sudden, Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards turned into Adam Malysz.