Derbyshire vs Gloucestershire One-Day Trophy

Billy Godleman

Derbyshire 271-7 (Godleman 96, Madsen 57, Elstone 37)Gloucestershire 218 (Footitt 2-39, Wainwright 3-45)

Derbyshire won by 53 runs

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty proud of the boys tonight.

Last night I said that we needed a "Cometh the hour, cometh the man" moment. Instead, we had two variants - the plural, together with the Godleman.

I didn't see the Derbyshire innings due to a little thing called work, but I got home for the start of the reply and then caught the highlights later. I was really taken with the commitment of the Derbyshire players, who held some terrific catches and produced some stellar work in the field. Wes Durston held two fine catches of contrasting skill sets, Alex Hughes and Scott Elstone were brilliant in the field and the side was captained with a level of astuteness by Wayne Madsen (or is it Madsden, as Sky irritatingly call him) that was a delight to see. Nor should the constant 'chirping' of Gareth Cross be overlooked, keeping the field on its toes. Tom Poynton will have enjoyed that.

The bowling had its less directed moments, but the highs outweighed them. Star turn was Mark Footitt, who bowled scarily quickly at times. Certainly too quickly for poor Michael Klinger, who ended up in hospital with a broken arm after fending off a Footitt flyer.

There were a few erratic deliveries, but the merit of the bowler was obvious, not least to the commentary team. You could almost see the words "our Mitchell Johnson" running through their heads and there is little doubt that Footitt's pace is sufficient to unsettle any batsmen. Another winter of development and fitness work and...who knows?

Then there was the ball of the day from David Wainwright. The chinaman that bowled the impressive Chris Dent was stunningly effective and the bowler could not have bowled it better in his dreams. The initial comment of "his arm ball" seemed woefully inadequate to me at first viewing, the ball ripping across the hapless batsman far more quickly than an arm ball could ever do. His reaction was priceless, just as the impact was on the game and our season.

Gloucestershire fought well and were never out of the game thanks to some spirited hitting from Dent, Alex Gidman and Jack Taylor, but Derbyshire always seemed to have it under control and took wickets at the right times to peg them back.

Earlier there were fine innings in contrasting styles from Wayne Madsen, Scott Elstone (who fully justified his selection) and Tony Palladino, but the standout was Billy Godleman. He carried on in similar vein to Scarborough and anyone watching will realise that the lad can play. He has a sound technique, as well as shots around the wicket and was only denied a century by an umpiring decision that was, frankly, awful. The wicket-keeper did well for them throughout the game, but his appeal for a leg-side catch followed on from that of the bowler like the dying throes of a Mexican wave as it finished the final side of the stadium. It was poor and I felt for the lad. He produced a top effort though and can be rightly proud of it.

Meanwhile over at Old Trafford, Leicestershire collapsed like a pack of cards and a weakened Lancashire breezed to an eight-wicket win with twenty overs to spare, meaning we earned the right to a quarter-final away at the home of our dear local rivals on Tuesday.

They will start favourites and rightly so. We will be rank outsiders and the likelihood is that we will emerge on the wrong side of the result. But this is a young and impressive side who work for one another and the greatest achievement is in getting to this stage having started on minus two points. Write us off at your peril.

Top effort from our boys. We're all going to bed happy tonight.