Hartley's havoc

Yorkshire 177 and 104

Derbyshire 140 and 134

Yorkshire won by 7 runs

A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME bowling display by Peter Hartley, including a hat-trick and five wickets in nine balls without a run being scored, saw Yorkshire home by a nail-biting margin.

Hartley's nine wickets for 41 might have been only the most dramatic example of the seam bowlers' general domination at Queen's Park, but it was fair reward for a spell of energetic accuracy in which he allowed a helpful wicket to do its work.

"I've bowled better and not taken as many wickets," said Hartley. "A lot of the time, it didn't feel all that good coming out of my hand." However, it was consistently too good for Derbyshire coming off the pitch, and the contrast between Hartley and England's Darren Gough could hardly have been more marked.

Gough struggled to find his length and line and was treated with scant respect. Even the single wicket with which he denied Hartley the chance of a clean sweep came in the middle of an over in which he was struck for five fours.

Chris Adams, who was making batting look if not easy, then at least manageable, struck the first three, then fell to a catch in the covers by Michael Bevan, only for Dominic Cork to come in and smite another two boundaries.

A combination of Cork and Tim O'Gorman seemed to put Derbyshire well on the way to the 142 runs they needed for victory, taking them to 76 for two before Hartley, who had earlier dismissed Kim Barnett, began his rampage. He had O'Gorman caught behind and then, with the last two balls of the over, trapped Phil DeFreitas and Tom Harrison lbw.

The first ball - "the worst I bowled," said Hartley - of the next over saw Cork caught brilliantly by David Byas for the hat-trick. Andrew Bairstow soon followed.

Now it was Derbyshire's position that seemed hopeless, especially when the first of their walking wounded, Adrian Rollins, departed after a brief innings with a runner. Resistance then came from an unlikely source, with Devon Malcolm thrashing 18 - including a huge six off Gough - and Alan Warner also hitting out for 33.

The extra burden of having to farm the strike to protect Daryll Cullinan, who was batting with a broken finger, eventually wore down Warner, who played on to give Hartley his ninth victim, with Derbyshire seven runs short of victory.

Ironically, the extra runs that Yorkshire gathered in the morning, when Martyn Moxon, another of the game's casualties, batted with a broken thumb, proved crucial to the outcome of a gripping match.