DERBYSHIRE are still alive and kicking in the Friends Life t20 after they pulled off a magnificent 16-run victory over Nottinghamshire last night at Trent Bridge.
Only a win was good enough for the Falcons after four successive defeats left them teetering on the brink of elimination from the North Group reckoning and their young side, missing the injured Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Albie Morkel, did it.
A huge storm an hour before the scheduled start time left the ground under water and it was a wonder the teams were able to get a game on at all. It was reduced to nine overs and, after losing the toss again, the Falcons were sent in to bat first.
What an effort it was from Derbyshire openers Wes Durston and Chesney Hughes, starting from the first ball which Hughes crushed over extra cover for four.
The tone was set. With only nine overs to go at, there was nothing to be gained from hanging around and Hughes, in particular, was going for everything in the early overs.
Durston got in on the act with successive fours off New Zealander Ian Butler in the third over and Hughes followed up with a couple of sixes off Samit Patel in the next. With four overs gone, the Falcons were 45-0.
They added 13 more with a couple of fours but the big over for Derbyshire was the sixth, bowled by David Hussey, with a six and two fours to finish it for Durston following a four for his partner as they moved the total on by 20.
That was 78-0 and, one ball later, the partnership had equalled the t20 record for the first wicket for Derbyshire against Notts, set by Durston and Loots Bosman in 2010.
The stand ended on 98 after 7.4 overs when Hughes tried to pull at a ball from Butler and sliced a high catch to cover point, taken by Jake Ball. His 46 came off 24 balls with six fours and two sixes.
Durston moved to his 50 off the penultimate ball. It took him 25 balls with five fours and two sixes and Derbyshire, with 108-1 to protect, were in the game.
But Notts have so many explosive players and needed only one of them to come off to tip the balance back their way. Enter Michael Lumb.
Though Alex Hales was bowled by the fifth ball and Samit Patel was caught at deep midwicket, both for nought and both off Tim Groenewald, Lumb made a white-hot start.
The Outlaws were 43-2 after three overs and the England international t20 opener had all 43 of them – off 14 balls with five fours and three sixes.
A single off the first ball of the next by James Taylor broke his monopoly and the Falcons then made the major breakthrough they needed as Lumb went to an excellent low catch by Mark Turner at long off from Peter Burgoyne's bowling.
Notts were never the big danger again and Derbyshire kept chipping away with regular wickets to further undermine the home side's efforts.
Burgoyne's two overs brought him 2-13, which is a fabulous return in the circumstances, and Alex Hughes, brought into the side to fill the considerable shoes of Morkel, took the wickets of Butler and Steven Mullaney in successive balls in the eighth.
That left Notts needing 29 runs off the last over and that was not going to happen. The Outlaws finished 92-7 and Derbyshire had not only stopped the rot of four successive defeats, they had given themselves a lifeline for when Leicestershire come to the County Ground on Friday (7pm).
