Yorkshire promoted after Derbyshire draw
Yorkshire made a major meal out of gaining promotion yesterday. With the champagne rumoured to be on ice since Sunday lunchtime in a game in which they have been dominant, it was hard to fathom how Craig White's team could go into the final innings with so little momentum and facing possible defeat.
Tenaciously as Derbyshire have fought, the Tykes' position has been worsened by their reliance on the opposition imploding. With a draw and the ensuing four points, plus bonuses, promotion would be assured and that appeared the height of their thinking rather than the minimum requirement it should have been.
On a day of landmarks Derbyshire posted their highest total against Yorkshire. Ant Botha made a career-best unbeaten 156 and helped shepherd 290 runs from the final three wickets. That set Yorkshire 220 to win from 59 overs after his side had been more than 300 in arrears on first innings. Dropped behind the wicket on 52 and again at deep cover by Michael Lumb on 123, the South African-born left-hander mixed leg-side accumulation with big cover drives. Throughout Botha looked more an opener than a No8.
Nick Walker provided late fireworks with a freewheeling 79. He and Botha put on 133 for the ninth wicket, a passage of play that reduced the visitors from a field setting of three slips, two gullies and a short-leg to men in all four corners of the ground as if positioned by parachute. Mark Lawson, who looks to have a leg-break of natural pace, was Yorkshire's most successful bowler with five for 155.
Yorkshire chased badly, Matthew Wood and Anthony McGrath out pulling at the new ball. McGrath's wicket was the debutant Wayne White's first in first-class cricket. Lumb followed lbw to the last ball before tea and Yorkshire had turned a victory that appeared a formality at the same time the day before into a scrambled draw and ultimately promotion.