An old friend of the family sent this report through to me today. Wow seems a different lifetime to be honest, very happy year I have to say I still find it hard to believe but this was just the icing on the cake. I thought I was up for release when I'd bust my ribs earlier and should have been out for 12 weeks depressed fracture of the ribs, but due to Injuries they filled me full of pain killers and had tried me after 2 weeks too painful afterwards and then back playing with a gut full of painkillers the following week. Ended up from starting quarter the way through July taking 50 wickets by the end of the season in championship. Amazing memories and this is just one report from the match I got capped in.
The Electronic Telegraph Derbyshire v Lancashire, County Chmpionship, Round 15
The Electronic telegraph - 4-7 August 1999
Day 1: Chapple in charge
Neil Hallam at Derby
First day of four: Derbyshire (24-2) trail Lancashire (224) by 200 runs
Glen Chapple, Warren Hegg and Richard Green wielded the mop and bucket to impressive effect after their supposed betters in Lancashire's batting order had partied into a queasy-looking mess against testing swing bowling.
Having opted to bat on a green-tinged pitch, Lancashire swished and swatted themselves into crisis at 71 for six, but Chapple dug in for more than four hours for 83 - a career-best effort if you do not count his force-fed century off 27 balls against Glamorgan in 1993.
Hegg and Chapple doubled the total by the simple expedient of leaving alone what they did not have to play, offering a straight bat to balls of good line or length and attacking whatever invited punishment.
Hegg seemed unconvinced by his lbw decision but Chapple's curses were reserved for himself when he jabbed at one to give the persevering Paul Aldred a sixth victim and career-best first-class bowling figures for the third time in six matches.
Derbyshire's dissatisfaction at letting Lancashire off the hook deepened as they lost Tim Tweats, bowled on the drive, and Aldred, the nightwatchman.
Day 2: Aldred sees luck swing his way
Neil Hallam at Derby
Second day of four: Lancs (224 & 91-5) lead Derbys (132) by 183 runs
Derbyshire medium-pacer Paul Aldred continued his sudden transformation from candidate for release to local hero when he was decorated in the field during a single-handed assault on the stronghold of Lancashire's commanding first-innings advantage.
Grotesquely inadequate batting by Derbyshire left them 92 behind, but Aldred, who has improved his career-best figures three times in six matches, put Lancashire back on the defensive by claiming their first five second innings wickets in a spell of high-quality swing bowling.
With 11 for 133 already, he has far exceeded his previous best match figures of seven for 97 against Notts last week and, after his fourth success, he was awarded his county cap in his fifth season since joining Derbyshire from local league cricket .
He must also have earned himself a new contract few would have backed him to receive after suffering a rib injury with the Second X1 in May. In the final season of his contract at the age of 30 and, with five other seamers apparently ahead of him in the pecking order, Aldred can hardly have been sanguine about his prospects, but he has re-emerged as a more controlled, less frenetic bowler.
Cricket manager Colin Wells commented: ``He is gaining the reward for sticking to the basics of good away swing bowling - getting close to the stumps, bowling tight lines and varying his pace intelligently.''
Not much intelligence was evident while Lancashire plunged to 38 for five, with Mark Chilton flirting outside off-stump, Neil Fairbrother playing round a straight one and John Crawley flicking down the legside. Andrew Flintoff's customary flurry ended with a slash to point and Chris Schofield was smartly held off an inside edge before Warren Hegg's commonsense application prevented further mishap.
Derbyshire, 24 for two overnight, never looked capable of getting close to Lancashire's total. Muttiah Muralitharan induced hysteria in the middle order as one batsman after another swept and lunged to his doom, and Peter Martin topped and tailed an innings in which only Adrian Rollins suggested durability.
Day 3: Derbyshire undone by departing Murali
Neil Hallam at Derby
Third day of four: Lancs (224 & 235) beat Derbys (132 & 135) by 192 runs
However much Derbyshire's batsmen sulked about the odd contentious decision, there was no disguising the bankruptcy of their performance as Muttiah Muralitharan bade farewell to Lancashire's championship campaign with his fifth match return of 10 wickets or more to give them victory with an hour of the third day unused.
Murali, who leaves for Sri Lanka next week, took seven for 39 and had match figures of 11 for 61 and a prodigious total of 66 wickets at less than 12 runs apiece in the six championship matches in which he has bowled. This aggregate places him second among first-class wicket-takers this summer.
Derbyshire's submission was wretched. Graham Lloyd and Warren Hegg, who came together at 38 for five, batted the home side out of contention with a stand of 113, Lloyd's second century of the season coming off 155 balls to set a victory target of 328.
Paul Aldred's seven for 101 improved his career-best for the fourth time in six games and gave him a match analysis of 13 for 184. But there was no chance of him finishing on the winning side from the moment Tim Tweats wafted at a ball he need not have played and Adrian Rollins was defeated by one which did not bounce much.
Any hope of Derbyshire salvaging a modicum of pride vanished in the first over after tea when Robin Weston's patience cracked with a crude attempt to sweep, starting a collapse in which Derbyshire's last six wickets fell for 41 runs in 14 overs.
Derbyshire's rabbits resigned themselves to the Sri Lankan stoat and Lancashire captain John Crawley said:''I can't believe any bowler in recent years has been as prolific as Murali has been for us.''
Source: The Electronic Telegraph
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Note muralitharan. Bowled it in from the boundary and chucked it at the crease.
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Topic: memories (Read 1935 times)