Durston, Madsen tons set up crushing win

Derbyshire bounced back from their miserable Twenty20 campaign by thrashing Hampshire by 136 runs in the opening Group A game of the Royal London Cup on a record-breaking day at Derby.

Centuries from Wes Durston and captain Wayne Madsen carried Derbyshire to 340 for 5, their highest one-day total against another first-class county, and although Hampshire started well, they collapsed to the spin of David Wainwright and were bowled out for 204 with 15.4 overs remaining.

Durston, who made his best one-day score of 134 from 129 balls, shared Derbyshire's highest third-wicket stand in limited-overs cricket of 222 in 36 overs with Madsen who scored 138 off 127 balls, his maiden one-day hundred.

Hampshire were going well, with Glenn Maxwell smashing four fours and two sixes, but his exit for 35 proved a turning point and although Michael Carberry made 55, Wainwright took four for 34 as Hampshire's last six wickets tumbled for 40.

Such an outcome looked a long way off after Hampshire's decision to put Derbyshire in appeared to be justified as Billy Godleman and Scott Elstone went in the space of seven balls. Godleman was smartly caught low down at square leg when he turned Chris Wood off his hip and Matt Coles got some movement to knock out Elstone's off stump, but that was as good as it got for Hampshire for the next 46 overs.

Durston and Madsen played superbly but they were helped by some poor bowling which gave the batsmen too much width, and only some tigerish fielding denied Derbyshire an even bigger total.

Durston reached his 50 from 55 balls and the 100 stand came up in 18 overs as the pair moved through the gears, with Durston launching Liam Dawson over midwicket for the first six of the innings in the 25th over. Neither player offered a chance although Durston was fortunate when he chipped Maxwell short of mid-off on 99, but that was the only luck he enjoyed as his century came up from 106 balls.

The 200 stand came up in 34 overs and although Durston was lbw trying to slog-sweep Will Smith, Madsen kept his foot firmly on the accelerator. He reached his century off 107 balls with a top-edged hook over the wicketkeeper for his 12th four and he lifted Sean Ervine over long leg for six before top-edging to cover.

A target of 341 was a daunting one but Hampshire got off to a flier, with 50 coming from the first five overs before James Vince drove Tom Taylor to cover to give the seamer his first one-day wicket.

He was driven back over his head for six by Maxwell, who was threatening to take the game away from Derbyshire as the visitors raced to 101 at the end of the first Powerplay. But the decision to take the second straight away backfired as Maxwell was caught at cover reverse-sweeping Tony Palladino, who had Jimmy Adams caught at fine leg in his next over.

Only 14 came from those five overs and after Carberry swept Wainwright to deep square leg, the innings subsided leaving head coach Dale Benkenstein to concede: "That was a proper hiding, there were some basic things lacking.

"Fifty overs is a long stint and all round, I wasn't very happy. We didn't create enough pressure to break that partnership [between Durston and Madsen], although they played really well. And with the batting, over the last six to eight weeks we have made some poor decisions."

Despite the win, Derbyshire have no points after starting with a two-point penalty for a poor pitch last season. But performance director, Graeme Welch, said: "We had a chat the other day and put a few things in place and we stuck to them for those first 10 overs when we were disappearing. It was great batting by Wes and the captain and then we came out and picked wickets up at regular intervals. Our lads played it really well."