Nottinghamshire 256 (Slater 107, Clarke 66) & 318 (Hameed 94, Duckett 87, Clarke 53) beat Derbyshire 105 (Fletcher 5-28) & 159 (Broad 4-37, Paterson 3-30) by 310 runs.
“Look at the opening session of day one, and no further than that.”
A cliché maybe and a proverb perhaps, but Peter Moores truly believes.
Ahead of red-ball fixtures, the Nottinghamshire Head Coach says it time and time again; for he knows that no act in the forthcoming drama will be more pivotal.
Against Derbyshire at the Incora County Ground, it proved to be never more thus.
Put in to bat on a green top of proverbial Derby proportions, the surroundings in which Ben Slater was sent in to battle could not have been more familiar; nor, as it turned out, could his temperament, stroke-play and form.
He perhaps didn’t know it at the time, but as the man nicknamed the Chesterfield Churner fluently flailed his way to 107 off 191 balls, the narrative of the contest had been shaped. For Derbyshire, it proved to be terminal.
For, in a game where the home side were bowled out for 105 and 159 – and in which the visitors themselves endured collapses of 62-8 and 139-9 in their first and second innings respectively – a first innings total of 256 proved to be significantly above par.
In conditions in which the likes of Michael Holding, Stan Mortenson and Ian Bishop would traditionally make hay regardless of whether the sun shone; a seam trio of Stuart Broad, Luke Fletcher and Dane Paterson ensured that the boot was firmly on the other foot on this occasion.
But, had there been a player of the match award, all three would – one suspects – have voted for their opening batsman.
Derbyshire won the toss and unsurprisingly invited their visitors to bat.
The home side’s Director of Cricket, David Houghton, had declared his side to be favourites in his pre-match media.
With Haseeb Hameed’s second ball dismissal having confirmed the old, almost darkly reassuring, adage that the game always wins in the end following back-to-back centuries at Worcester – and with Ben Duckett having been blamelessly caught at slip via an unplayable delivery from Fynn Hudson-Prentice – the former Zimbabwe international’s prediction perhaps appeared shrewd at 31-2.
Then came the partnership that defined the contest.
Slater, whose commitment to playing the ball on its merits can equally lead to spells of uncompromising graft and periods of elegant acceleration, embarked upon the latter course of action.
For a side who could barely have known their adversary better, it was surprising how much they bowled to his strengths. Slater had passed three-figures by Tea and struck 16 boundaries.
Joe Clarke, as ever, combined an aura of supreme confidence with trademark elegance – and no little strength – in adding 66 off 95 deliveries.
The score was on 194 before another wicket fell and that, in itself, was 35 more than Derbyshire mustered in two attempts.
Still, at 256 all out, Houghton’s prediction still didn’t necessarily lack merit.
By the time his batsmen had collapsed to 86-8 overnight, and concluded their first innings at 105 the next morning, Notts had turned the tables on the casino.
Fletcher (5-28), Broad (2-33) and Paterson (2-28) exploited the conditions impeccably. As Steven Mullaney opted not to enforce the follow-on, they elevated their legs once more.
As the Green and Golds endeavoured to build upon their 151-run first innings advantage, Slater once again was in sparkling form.
He breezed elegantly into the 20s before suffering the misfortune of being bowled off his thigh pad. The game, my dear old thing, always wins in the end.
In the absence of his prolific partner, it was Hameed’s time to shine with a sprightly, positive and skilful innings of 94.
Ben Duckett, meanwhile – who, in truth, had looked in good order in the first innings prior to being on the receiving end of a jaffer – spent his 101-ball stay at the crease working his angles, toying with ever-moving fielders and putting away bad balls.
That he was dismissed 13 runs short of a century was the result of personal frustration. However, in light of such a crushing victory, it mattered little in the final reckoning.
The diminutive left-hander, who averaged 56 in the Bob Willis Trophy last season, had played his part and was back among the runs.
Clarke, who now has in excess of 5,000 in First-Class cricket at the age of 24, powered past 50 for the second time in the match.
If the right-hander left a few out there by not going big, his form and fluency was an indicator that he’s saving them for another day.
Derbyshire were left chasing a mammoth 470 to win, or with a little over six sessions to bat. They were all out before lunch on day three.
Broad was the standout bowler this time, claiming figures of 4-37. “He ran in like it was a Test Match,” was his captain’s post-match appraisal.
And while the 34-year-old’s extraordinary international longevity may, at times, have rendered him something of an absent friend, Broad’s record in a Nottinghamshire shirt is exemplary; 158 wickets at 23.45.
And if he was the final day sorcerer, Paterson turned himself into quite the apprentice.
The three wickets that tore out the heart of the Derbyshire middle-order were eye-catching for pace, for skill and for hearty celebrations.
The one-handed catch on the boundary to dismiss Sam Conners, meanwhile, was frankly freakery and has been viewed online by hundreds of thousands, probably millions by now, since.
And so it was that Nottinghamshire emerged victorious.
A pitch that was green on the eye and on which was challenging to bat had made for seven sessions of pulsating cricket.
Whether the batsmen or bowlers were chiefly responsible, the debate can continue. The reality is, it was all of them combined.
With Zak Chappell rested for this fixture – and with Jake Ball and Brett Hutton both plotting their injury returns – the Green and Golds have built admirable depth to their pace bowling line-up, which they’ll need during the course of a long season.
The openers, meanwhile, Hameed and Slater, are averaging 57 and 53 respectively in 2021.
For the past decade – since the days of Gallian and Bicknell perhaps – many a middle-order man has done a serviceable, sometimes sterling, job in positions one and two in the Nottinghamshire order.
But, in ‘Hass & Slats’, they now have a duo who were born to bat at the very top of the order. Their 225-runs here went a long way to securing derby day glory.
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