Readers concerned that the seemingly imperious march of Bazball across the cricket firmament has blotted out the more, er, traditional virtues of the game need fret no more. Matches in the ninth division of the Derbyshire League don’t normally make headlines from Australia to Qatar but a needle relegation tussle between Mickleover Third XI and Darley Abbey’s Fourth team was no ordinary game. Mickleover piled up a chunky 271-4 declared in a mere 35 overs, thanks largely to a teenager called Max Thompson who belted 186 from 128 balls, with a feast of fours and sixes.
If you have to call up J.K. Rowling’s bespectacled wizard, you really are in a spot of bother
In fairness to the Darley boys, it can’t have been fun flogging round the outfield chasing after boundaries, but they decided to go about their reply in a spectacularly dour way. Even for Derbyshire. The opener Ian Bestwick set out not to score a single run and duly ended on nought not out from 137 balls.
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