“Curse of Chesterfield” finally ended - sort of - thanks to Matty Revis
“ABANDON hope all ye who enter here” says the sign as you drive from Yorkshire into Chesterfield.
At least that's how it's felt for a long time now, Yorkshire losing on their past eight visits in T20 cricket.
So dire has been this sequence of distress, it has come to be known as the “Curse of Chesterfield”.
Would it continue in the “Spire” town on Sunday? Well, yes and no as it turned out.
On a warm and breezy day at Queen’s Park, before a sold out crowd of 5,000, Yorkshire and Derbyshire played out a tie.
Sent into bat, the hosts scored 215-9, Wayne Madsen striking 62 from 33 balls with 12 fours, Martin Andersson 51 from 27 with seven fours and a six, and Ross Whiteley 36 from 20 with five fours and a six.
It was the highest T20 total at the ground - beating the 212-4 against Yorkshire three years ago - and should really have been higher given that just 38 came off the last five overs, including 17 off the last three in which four wickets fell. A.J Tye took 3-36 from four overs, Hassan Ali 3-39 from four and Matty Revis 2-14 from two, Derbyshire’s only higher T20 total against Yorkshire being 222-5 at Headingley in 2010.
Yorkshire’s highest chase in this format of the game is 208, against Durham at Headingley four years ago, and they could not have come closer to beating that here, recovering from a sketchy start, losing their way again before Revis so nearly pulled off the win. The 24-year-old made a career-best 69 not out from 32 balls with five sixes and four fours, a valiant effort that made it feel like two points gained for the visiting team.
Earlier, Will Luxton clubbed 46 from 21 with four fours and four sixes, and Faheem Ashraf 40 from 17, also with four sixes, the equation boiling down to 18 needed off the last over, bowled by Akif Javed, the left-arm quick, who after starting with a dot ball was taken for 6, 2, 2, 6 by Revis to leave two runs needed from the final ball.
Revis played it firmly to mid-off but could only get through for a single, sinking to his haunches in frustration. Yorkshire finished on 215-8 with George Hill unable to bat after leaving the field earlier with heart palpitations, although he was later said to be feeling much better.
Aneurin Donald, the Derbyshire captain, set the tone for an afternoon of heavy run-scoring when he lofted the fourth ball of the game from Hassan Ali for a straight six towards the Lake end. But he fell in the next over, top-edging a pull off Hill to Hassan running in from deep mid-wicket, a well-judged catch seeing that the ball almost had snow on it despite descending from sunny skies. Yousaf Bin Naeem launched Ashraf for six over long-off, then Andersson flicked Hill over the backward square rope as Derbyshire reached 50 from four overs.
They lost their second wicket on 57 when Bin Naeem tried to swing Hassan firmly to leg and was caught behind, Derbyshire 73-2 at the end of the powerplay.
As Puffin’ Billy cho-chooed in the distance, the miniature train in arboreal Queen’s Park, opener Andersson went to his fifty from 25 balls with eight boundaries. Derbyshire were 116-2 at halfway but Andersson fell to the final ball of the 11th over, chipping Tye tamely to mid-off.
Matthew Montgomery pulled Tye to substitute fielder Dom Bess at deep mid-wicket (134-4 in the 13th) but Madsen kept up the impetus en route to a 27-ball fifty with nine fours. Madsen struck Moeen Ali for five fours in his solitary over but was then bowled swinging at Revis, who followed up by having Amrit Basra caught by Bess at deep mid-wicket.
Revis turned catcher when Whiteley skied to mid-off off Hassan, who claimed another wicket in that penultimate over when Ben Aitchison gave Bess another catch at deep mid-wicket. Nick Potts clubbed the final ball of the innings from Tye to mid-off.
Jonny Bairstow pulled the second delivery of the chase from Montgomery to deep mid-wicket, but Luxton drove his first two balls from the spinner to the offside rope, then lofted him for a handsome straight six.
After Adam Lyth lofted Javed to mid-off, Luxton pulled Potts for a leg-side six that struck a spectator near the scoreboard, the person requiring medical attention. Luxton followed up with another six later in the over to almost the same place but perished to Potts’s next ball, the last of the powerplay, which he lofted to cover.
Sufyan Moqim, the Pakistani left-arm wrist-spinner, marked his T20 debut for Derbyshire by bowling Sam Whiteman and then having Moeen caught on the mid-wicket boundary as Yorkshire fell to 95-5 in the 12th.
Ashraf played some blistering strokes before being well caught by Basra at long-on off Aitchison, who made it three wickets in five balls when Tye was held at long-on and Hassan at long-off, at which point Yorkshire looked beaten at 172-8 off 17. But Revis hit with devastating power, using his long levers to thrilling effect.