Yorkshire limp to promotion
Yorkshire did enough to seal the third promotion slot in the second Division of the County Championship
Cricinfo staff
19-Sep-2005
Yorkshire secured the draw they needed to gain them promotion, but they had to survive a remarkable turnaround in a match they had seemed on course to win by an innings.
Derbyshire, without a Championship victory all season, started their second innings 304 in arrears, and when they slipped to 233 for 7 on the third afternoon the game was almost over. But Ant Botha, with a career-best 156, marshalled the last three wickets brilliantly, adding 290 to leave Yorkshire with a tricky target of 220 runs at four an over. Nick Walker took the attack to Yorkshire's bowlers clubbing 79 in 88 balls as Yorkshire fell apart in the field. But, with an eye on the future of England's spin bowling, the innings was wrapped up my Mark Lawson who claimed 5 for 155 with his legspin.
Yorkshire never looked comfortable as they chased, with Matthew Wood and Anthony McGrath soon out pulling at the new ball. When Michael Lumb followed lbw to the last ball before tea, the Yorkshire balcony looked decidedly nervous, and a clatter of wickets soon after the resumption left them teetering on 82 for 6. It took a tenacious and fortuitous fifty from Joe Sayers - in which he was dropped four times - to see them to safety.
Botha followed his heroics with the bat with a continuous 23-over spell of slow left-arm, finishing with 2 for 20.