Derbyshire breeze past lacklustre West Indies

Derbyshire 135 for 6 (Katich 31, Taylor 28*, Gayle 2-15) beat West Indians 84 (Richards 25, Lungley 4-11, Botha 4-14) by 51 runs
Scorecard

Ahead of their two Twenty20 matches against England next week, West Indies slipped to a humiliating 51-run defeat at the hands of Derbyshire at the County Ground, with Ant Botha and Tom Lungley each picking up four wickets.

To further compound West Indian woes, their team today was far stronger than the mishmash they put out against the England Lions last week, when five players from English league cricket were drafted in. Dwayne Smith, Austin Richards and Lendl Simmons were all included today, but it had little positive effect as their batsmen capitulated to 84 all out in the 16th over, chasing a modest 136.

Chris Gayle was first to go, bowled by Lungley for 4 and the same bowler trapped Marlon Samuels, the very next ball, for a duck. Simmons only lasted nine balls, but Richards at least held one end up in his fighting 25, cracking three fours and a six. He received encouraging support from Dwayne Bravo (12 from 12) and Smith (13 from 15) but, neither could partner him for a lengthy period. From a precarious 67 for 4, West Indies lost their last six wickets for 17 runs.

The defeat is all the more concerning, not simply because the team they fielded was so much stronger, but for their brittle batting after a promising effort with the ball. Only Derbyshire's captain, Simon Katich, with an industrious 31 from 28 balls, threatened to take the attack to West Indies' bowlers, their spinners - Samuels and Gayle - taking three wickets in six overs between them. Chris Taylor, who ended unbeaten on 28 (from 25) also provided good support, but the restrictions West Indies imposed on Derbyshire's first 10 overs hampered their progress.

In the end, 135 was more than enough. Their next and final warm-up match, another Twenty20 against a PCA Masters XI on Tuesday, now takes on an even greater significance.

David Moore, the West Indies coach, slammed the team's batting performance after the game. "It is very disappointing," Moore said. "We committed the cardinal sin to not bat our 20 overs out. We lost six wickets in four overs, played poor shots, it was very poor batting."