Gary Ballance, above, batted for almost five-and-a-half hours to amass 134 with 13 fours as Yorkshire beat Derbyshire by five wickets in their Second Eleven Championship match at Derby.

Sixteen wickets went down on the first day at Derby and 13 on the second - but when Day 3 began Yorkshire needed 304 runs to win as the fourth innings got under way.

DAY 1: Derbyshire won the toss and put Yorkshire in - and the bowlers had no success for 90 minutes of the morning session...but still five wickets were captured by lunchtime.

Paul Borrington and Hamza Siddique compiled 65 runs after the first wicket had fallen in the third over, but once Saddique was trapped leg-before by Jack Hargreaves three more followed to leave Derbyshire 111-5 at the interval.

Another three went down for eight runs to make it 119-8, but two triallists - Baird and Knight - added 48 runs for the ninth wicket, the innings closing soon afterwards at 174.

Yorkshire’s reply began disastrously - Joe Root bowled neck and crop fourth ball by one that kept low. Wickets fell regularly, no batsman taking his innings by the scruff of the neck, and by the close Yorkshire had lost five more wickets - still facing a deficit of 69. They faced  an uphill struggle - most appropriate in the Peak District - to reach parity on first innings.

DAY 2: Not quite as many wickets! It took Derbyshire 17 overs to bag Yorkshire’s last four and, crucially, the visitors added 60 runs to leave them only seven behind on first innings. Callum Geldart was the backbone of Yorkshire's innings: coming at the fall of Root’s wicket he was ninth out for precisely 50 - the only half-century of the two innings. 

Yet Yorkshire's top-scorer was Mr Sundries - who ran up 59, including 32 byes.

Rain delayed the start of Derbyshire’s second innings, and after five minutes there was a further 10-minute break. Yorkshire worked their way through four wickets in 40 overs to tea - Derbyshire extending their lead to 137 and Siddique completing the game's second 50.

The fifth wicket was taken four balls after the restart - but exiled Lancastrian Jonathan Clare came to the rescue of Yorkshire’s opponents: his partnerships with Charles Hemphrey, formerly of Kent, and triallist Baird added 147 - a perfect break in snooker - before he was out five runs short of what would have been a well deserved century.

Two more wickets fell soon afterwards, the declaration coming with four overs remaining and Derbyshire 303 runs ahead, but bad light prevented a start to Yorkshire’s second innings. There are 96 overs to be bowled on Day 3 - 304 runs needed for a Yorkshire victory...or Derbyshire need 10 wickets.

DAY 3: The exit poll after the late-evening declaration suggested that it was all to play for...was the fourth-innings target of 304 to win, the highest of the match, beyond reach?

The first wicket fell in the 10th over, when Root's stumps were uprooted with 31 on the board, and 40 runs later Shazhada Khan took two in two as Geldart was caught and Charlie Roebuck trapped leg-before. There was a suspicion that Ballance had been dropped at the wicket when he had barely started, but he batted patiently on at the other end, and with Lee Hodgson for company he went in to lunch at 103-3.

There was no more success for the Derbyshire down the afternoon: Ballance and Hodgson doubled the score without either being troubled until the tea break broke Hodgson’s concentration - he was bowled by Atif Sheikh in the first over after the interval after the partnership had realised 135.

Azeem Rafiq joined Ballance...another century partnership would see the target reached...and it was! The pair saw off the slow bowlers spinning the old ball - and neither were the pace bowlers successful with the new ball.

That is, until with the scores level Ballance was caught by Hamza Siddique off Khan - black ink being used to record the details of his innings instead of the red ink traditionally reserved for not-outers! Ballance had scored his second Championship century for the Seconds, and it was his endeavours that had got Yorkshire to the finishing post.

The honour of scoring the winning run was awarded to the incoming batsman Jack Hargreaves, who duly executed a cover-drive off the fourth ball he received. Surprisingly, this was Yorkshire’s first Championship victory at Derby’s County Ground in eight visits.

The Seconds now have a week off competition matches. Glamorgan visit the Broad Acres the week after with a Trophy match at Headingley Carnegie and a Championship fixture at Barnsley.

Words and Statistics: MICHAEL SNOOK