Attendance – 1847
Yorkshire tied their second game in the last three as a Billy Godleman inspired Derbyshire fought back with the bat in yet another amazing Royal London one-day Cup fixture at Emerald Headingley.
A near three-and-a-half-hour rain delay was crucial in the outcome of this game, Yorkshire’s fourth in the North Group.
The visitors chased a revised target of 225 in 22 overs and got it down to 17 off the last over and two off the last ball, only for Godleman and Matt Critchley to run a bye to the wicketkeeper against David Willey’s bowling.
Captain and opener Godleman finished 107 not out off 62 balls, hitting a six and a four in the last over, and he became the first Derbyshire batsman to post three successive List A centuries.
Earlier, the Vikings aggressively amassed 308-2 from 40 overs, with their innings cut short just before 2pm.
They were on course to surpass their highest List A total of 411-6 against Devon in 2004, something Derbyshire would surely have been unable to respond to.
In the end, they were left to reflect on a second tie after last week’s nail-biter against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.
Sandwiched in between was the one-run Roses defeat here on Easter Sunday. Their first game was a home win over Leicestershire.
Adam Lyth and departing England international Willey struck to reduce Derby to 10-2 inside two overs when play resumed at 5.15pm.
But Godleman and South African Leus du Plooy sparked the game into life with a 135-stand inside 13 overs.
Du Plooy hit five sixes in 75 off 37 balls. Godleman hit six sixes in all on an excellent pitch under the Headingley floodlights, which were on for the majority of the game.
Earlier, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Lyth and Willey, 72 not out off only 49, all posted scores in the seventies, while Harry Brook added the fourth half-century of the innings and finished unbeaten on 59 off 40.
Kohler-Cadmore and Lyth hit 79 off 92 balls and 78 off 60 respectively as they shared an opening stand of 157 inside 24 overs.
Both men fell in the space of three overs – Lyth smartly caught by Sam Conners running in from long-leg after a top-edged pull at Ravi Rampaul and Kohler-Cadmore caught at extra cover off Critchley’s leg-spin.
That left Yorkshire at 167-2 in the 27th over before Willey and Brook really put the visitors under the cosh in the second half of the innings.
Willey, who will return to Yorkshire after the World Cup in mid-July, smashed three of six sixes in the Vikings innings, over long-off, long-on and deep backward square-leg and reached 50 off 39 balls.
Brook then reached his half-century off 36 balls to continue a productive spell of one-day cricket.
In the opening fixture of this competition, he hit 103 – his maiden century – against Leicestershire at Headingley.
Earlier this week, he smashed 144 in a second-team win over Notts at York.
Willey and Brook had shared 141 inside 14 overs for the third wicket – a Yorkshire record for that wicket in matches against Derbyshire – when the rain arrived.
In the eight overs immediately prior to the rain, Willey and Brook pummelled 113 runs.
Derbyshire’s innings was always likely to be action-packed given the size of their task, and they lost Luis Reece and Wayne Madsen inside two overs to Lyth’s off-spin and Willey.
But Godleman and du Plooy, who reached fifties off 28 and 24 balls, peppered the leg-side boundary before the latter holed out off Lyth (145-3 in the 15th).
Critchley then helped maintain the visitors momentum before tight overs at the death from Willey, Duanne Olivier and Steve Patterson, who conceded only six off the penultimate, swung the pendulum once more.
Godleman reached his ton off 59 balls in the final over.
Yorkshire face group leaders Nottinghamshire, who have four from four in the race for a top three finish, at a sold out Trent Bridge on Sunday.