Rice furious as Derbyshire go oh so close
by Alan Rowley, 20th April 2002

Nottinghamshire manager Clive Rice was furious with his team after they nearly threw away a match winning position in Wednesday's friendly against Derbyshire. The home side managed to bowl only 42 of their overs in the alloted time and were penalised six runs for each of the remaining overs.

Rice said: " Throwing runs away like that is totally unecessary. It changed the whole complexion of the game. Consequently, Derbyshire needed only five runs off the last over for victory."

As it happened, Rice needn't have been worried as Nadeem Malik bowled an excellent final over. Michael Di Venuto scored a single of the first ball, leaving Graeme Welch on strike. Welch couldn't score any runs off the remaining five balls to leave Derbyshire three runs short. Di Venuto finished with an excellent unbeaten 129.

Nottinghamshire, batting first, amassed 285 for 8 with Tom Lungley coming out best of the Derbyshire bowlers with 3 for 48. Welch took 2 for 42. On the bowling front, there was good news for Derbyshire as skipper Dominic Cork bowled his first overs, six in all, after he turned his ankle over in the friendly victory over Durham.

Derbyshire started badly, but a fine fifth wicket stand of 95 in 10 overs between Cork (45) and Di Venuto put the visitors back on course. However, once Cork departed, Derbyshire lost momentum and finished their innings on 282 for 8.

In the game, Derbyshire debutted new signing Mohammad Ali . Ali, a Pakistani quickie, qualifies for the county through marriage. He is signed on a match to match basis and has taken 179 wickets in his native country. Ali takes his place in the squad for the first County Championship game against Glamorgan starting on Friday in Cardiff.