A nice article someone sent to me today. Seems a lifetime ago but what a great team the Aussies were and a great bunch of guys was fortunate to spend some very happy times with them when Michael slater became our overseas player and friend. Very happy memories
SHAME that Derbyshire aren’t playing the Australians this summer.
But the tourists are meeting hardly any counties. As cricket shifts towards more internationals and one-day matches, the traditional fixture list is no more.
Paul Aldred scored the winning runs against Australia.
So I’m going to look back to June 1997, when Paul Aldred hit the winning runs with three balls to spare against the Australians at the County Ground.
Aldred was doing more than seeing the county to a breathtaking victory; it was the first time in 28 attempts, stretching back almost 120 years, that Derbyshire had beaten the Australians – and, for good measure, they had achieved it with their highest-ever fourth innings score.
Alas, it was also the last time that Derbyshire met the Aussies in a first-class match.
On a slow Derby pitch – fast bowler Devon Malcolm had been rested before the Tests – Derbyshire were asked to score 371 off what, ultimately, were 69 overs.
They got them with three balls to spare, after Chris Adams had set up victory with 91 off 76 balls. Adams, in trouble for disputing his first-innings dismissal, had been particularly well supported by Adrian Rollins (66) and Derbyshire’s Australian captain, Dean Jones (57).
But it had been an excellent all-round effort, not least by Aldred and last man Kevin Dean, who had nonchalantly pulled the first ball he received, from Shane Warne (seven for 103) to the boundary.
Derbyshire needed five runs off the last over, bowled by Brendon Julian, and Aldred, playing despite the death of his father the previous week, duly collected them to write a new chapter in the county’s history.
Sadly, for Derbyshire at least, a repeat of this famous fixture looks highly unlikely in the foreseeable future.
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Topic: Derbyshire v Australia 1997 (Read 1782 times)