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Drakes finishes off Derbyshire

Notts (269-7) bt Derbys (261-9) by 8 runs

Derbyshire may call themselves the Scorpions but it was Notts who produced the sting in the tail as Vasbert Drakes took four wickets with the first four balls of the final over to give Notts victory by eight runs.

Derbyshire, apparently on course to win only their second National game since May after Matthew Cassar's 109 off 188 balls, lost seven wickets for 35 runs with Drakes becoming only the third player to take four in four in limited-overs matches in this country.

Alan Ward did it for Derbyshire against Sussex, at Derby in 1970, and Shaun Pollock for Warwickshire against Leicestershire, at Edgbaston in 1996, but it is doubtul whether either of these feats was as startling as Drakes' last-over intervention in the deepening gloom.

Phil DeFreitas had his off stump uprooted by a yorker, Adrians Rollins perished to another which flattened middle stump and one could only imagine the feelings of James Pyemont, who got a king pair on his championship debut against Surrey last week, as he wandered in line for his third first-ball duck to complete the hat-trick.

Drakes next ball hit Simon Lacey's leg stump to leave Derbyshire with a defeat which was hardest on Cassar, unrecognisable as the fretful batsman who averages 16 in the County Championship as he hit a six and 10 fours and shared a stand of 118 in 19 overs with Robin Weston.

Notts, who ended a run of three defeats, were launched towards towards a demanding total by half-centuries from Jason Gallian and Usman Afzaal, then profited from the middle-order enterprise of Chris Read, Graeme Archer and Alex Wharf with only the grudging off spin of Simon Lacey imposing some restraint.

Graham Thorpe's impressive 84 proved the difference at the Oval as Surrey squeezed out Durham by two runs in the bottom-of-thetable clash.

Thorpe hit seven fours and three sixes, all off Nicky Phillips, and he put on 92 for the fourth wicket with Ally Brown. He reached 50 by lifting the off spinner out of the ground and off towards the famous gasholders.

Alec Stewart, whose 21 included a slashed six over cover point and a couple of trademark back-foot drives, and Ian Ward put on 45 for the first wicket but were both snared in quick succession by John Wood.

Brown contributed just 20 as he played second fiddle to Thorpe but after his run out and the England's batsman's soft dismissal, caught at short third man playing the reverse sweep, the innings lost its impetus.

The visitors were left to regret their tardiness in the field which had deprived them of an over and almost certainly consigned them to the National League wooden spoon.

Durham are to release their leading run-scorer in first-class cricket, John Morris, 35, with cricket executive Geoff Cook explaining: ``We have had to make a difficult decision but there is a need to reduce costs.''