Date-stamped : 03 May97 - 06:14
Derbyshire lose count

By Neil Hallam at Derby

Yorks (260-5) bt Derbyshire (260-7) on countback

JUST when we thought the arcane  regulations  of   limited  overs
cricket  could  not  produce  new  complications  to  perplex the
spectator, along came another  bizarre   twist   to   send  large
numbers of them home unsure who had won or exactly how.

Some,  indeed,   turned   back   from   the   exits    to    seek
enlightenment  after  an eventful and, to many, mystifying  final
over from Chris Silverwood had left Derbyshire`s score level with
Yorkshire`s at 260 for seven.

"For those of you who are not familiar with  the  rules  of  this
competition,"   the  public   address   man   eventually offered:
"Yorkshire have won on a  countback  to  the  25 overs stage,  at
which they had scored  116  and  Derbyshire had  103." Bafflement
had set  in  with  what  should  have been  the   final  delivery
of  a last over which began with Derbyshire needing 11 to win - a
prospect which receded when Silverwood summoned a  fine yorker to
dislodge  the resourceful  Karl  Krikken  with  his second ball.

Six were needed off his  sixth  ball  and  though  Phil DeFreitas
chipped  it  past  him  for  only  two,  a  "no  ball" shout from
umpire David Constant meant that Derbyshire`s  hopes  were   very
much alive again.

Silverwood, striving for a full  length,  served  up  a full-toss
above  waist  height  which  Constant  ruled   a  beamer, to give
Derbyshire a two-run bonus and -  after  a  five-minute delay for
the  consequences  to be discussed -  another  ball from which to
go for their third victory out of three.

DeFreitas managed to  squeeze  only  a  single  out   of  another
ball  fired  into  the   blockhole,   so  it  was  Yorkshire  who
triumphed in a game Derbyshire seemed well placed to win  at  175
for two after 38 overs.

The wicket of Kim Barnett, held at long-on after making  88  came
off  130 balls, began a middle-order wobble  and  earned left-arm
spinner  Richard  Stemp  the  Gold  Award,  for   which  Barnett,
Peter Hartley, Silverwood and DeFreitas were also contenders.

Yorkshire,  who  chose   to   bat   first   on   a   wicket    of
occasionally   low  bounce,  also  failed  to  capitalise  on   a
prosperous start, subsiding from 175 for two in   38   overs   as
Barnett`s gentle medium pace induced a sequence  of  crude lunges
when sensible placement was required.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/)

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