Josh Savage rips Sandiacre apart to secure win for Chesterfield

Many of the regular supporters commented that this second spell of his from the Lake end was as aggressive a piece of bowling they had seen from a Chesterfield bowler for a long time.

Replying to a modest Chesterfield total of 188, Sandiacre looked in a secure position on 105/3 when Savage found real pace and bounce to take seven wickets in a spell that blasted away the opposition and left them reeling and all out for 145.

Sandiacre won the toss and elected to field and their opening bowlers soon made inroads into the Chesterfield innings.

Matthew Newbold produced a peach of a ball which both swung and did something off the pitch to get an unlucky Minesh Keshwala caught behind with the score on 37/2.

From then on Chesterfield regularly lost wickets with only captain Alex Hibbert, producing another stoic innings, able to cope with the tight Sandiacre bowling. Chesterfield limped to 188/8 off their 50 overs which looked around 40 runs short of a defensible score.

Alex Hibbert finished unbeaten on 74 and this fighting innings s put in perspective by the fact that only four other players got into double figures – the next highest scorer being number ten batsman, Brian Gladwin with a creditable unbeaten 17.

The pick of the away bowlers were Matthew Newbold (3-49) and John Jordison whose 2-18 came off eight overs.

Sandiacre must have been confident going in to bat that they had a more than even chance of winning the match but they were soon in difficulty losing an early wickets.

A good partnership was formed by McNeill and Birch until Birch (29) became the first wicket for debutant Shahzad Jamil with the score on 71/3.

Another good partnership of 34 was ended when overseas player Josh Savage took over from Jamil at the Lake end.

What followed will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the finest spells of bowling seen by a Chesterfield player.

As so often happens in cricket the history books will not tell the true story as alongside Savage’s achievement should be a note (assisted by Luke Baddeley) as the young leg spinner produced another very impressive spell of bowling which kept things tight at the other end.

This was a 0-34 off 14 overs which was one of the dominant factors in Chesterfield’s victory by 43 runs.

The plaudits, however, rightly go to Josh Savage with a stunning and unforgettable 8-60.