Yorkshire Carnegie v Derbyshire Falcons: Yorkshire pay price for poor batting display

The forced jollity, the football-style crowds, the mandatory beer snakes and bouncy castles – all conspire to deflate the purist and tickle the taste buds of the easily thrilled.

However, the fact remains the competition is Yorkshire’s only real hope of silverware this summer.

Their Championship form is poor, their CB40 form patchy, and only the artificial glitz of Twenty20 offers potential respite in a season to forget.

Yorkshire’s hopes of reaching their first Finals Day remain eminently realistic but their chances suffered a blow last night.

A 12-run defeat to Derbyshire was their third in seven group games and left them fifth in the North Division.

In front of just 3,812 spectators (further proof the 16-match group stage puts too much strain on pockets and patience), Yorkshire paid for a mediocre batting display. They bowled and fielded fairly well to restrict Derbyshire to 152-4 after the visitors won the toss but would have been disappointed with 140-5 in reply.

Having lost their opening two games against Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire had got their campaign back on track with three straight victories – not including a washout against Northamptonshire.

They would have expected to beat a Derbyshire side who were second-bottom of the table having won only one of seven games.

But form and league position can be red herrings in the game’s shortest form and so it proved on a cloudy evening.

Propelled by Wayne Madsen’s career-best 61, Derbyshire raised a competitive total on the back of 98 runs from the last 10 overs.

Chesney Hughes chipped in with 32 and Garry Park 31, and Ross Whiteley thumped an unbeaten 17 from seven balls that injected important late impetus.

Gary Ballance (46) and Joe Root (46no) did their best to steer Yorkshire home with a stand of 82 from 62 balls after the hosts slipped to 53-4. But a combination of soft dismissals at the top of the order, allied to a little bit of inexperience in the middle overs, assisted a Derbyshire team who bowled impressively and fielded wonderfully, with several outstanding stops in the deep preventing what had appeared certain fours.

With Ryan Sidebottom rested, Yorkshire welcomed back pace bowler Steve Patterson and made a decent start as Derbyshire lost a wicket in the game’s first over.

Wes Durston pushed a ball from Adil Rashid to cover, where Azeem Rafiq swooped to run-out Martin Guptill. Derbyshire fell to 15-2 in the fourth over when Durston went lbw to Ajmal Shahzad, who conceded only three runs from his opening two overs.

The visitors managed only 33 runs during the first six overs of power play as Yorkshire stymied them with tight bowling and athletic fielding.

The first part of the Derbyshire innings was a bit like a leisurely Sunday afternoon stroll.

It lacked urgency and ambled along somewhat aimlessly, Yorkshire having cause to be satisfied with a score of 54-2 at the halfway stage. Derbyshire slid to 68-3 in the 12th over when Hughes aimed an ugly hoick across the line at Rafiq and lost his leg-stump, ending a partnership of 53 in nine overs with Madsen.

The latter finally got the innings going by smashing Rafiq over long-on into the Football Stand as the off-spinner leaked 15 runs from the 14th over of the innings. Madsen reached fifty from 39 balls and added 59 in seven overs with Park, who fell in the penultimate over attempting a dire reverse flick off Patterson that almost defied description and was stumped.

Derbyshire managed 57 from the last five overs but no one bowled particularly poorly for Yorkshire, for whom Rashid and Shahzad were the most economical.

Yorkshire’s innings got off to a disappointing start when Andrew Gale – so often a danger man in this tournament – was stumped off a leg-side wide in the opening over bowled by Durston.

Yorkshire fell to 31-2 in the fifth over when Adam Lyth carved to point and to 38-3 when Anthony McGrath was run-out after Jonny Bairstow pushed Tim Groenwald to cover and set off for a single.

Bairstow – dropped on nine at deep-square leg by Whitely off Jonathan Clare – was caught in the covers off Hughes for 16 to leave Yorkshire four down in the tenth over.

Ballance and Root fought hard to repair the damage but were unable to provide sufficient acceleration, although Ballance clubbed three leg-side sixes before holing out to deep mid-wicket in the final over.

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