Wade destroys Derbyshire with record ton

Matthew Wade’s bulldozing form continued in England as he obliterated Derbyshire for his second century of the Australia A tour.

Three days after he struck a whirlwind 117 against Northamptonshire, Wade hammered an astonishing 155 from just 71 balls, striking 14 fours and 11 sixes to power his side to the victory target of 284 with a seven wickets in hand and 88 balls to spare.

It took just 45 balls to for Wade to reach his century, making him the owner of the fastest List A hundred by an Australian, bettering David Hussey’s 49-ball effort for Nottinghamshire against Somerset at Trent Bridge in 2009.

Wade’s knock is also the second-fastest List A  150 of all time behind the legendary South African AB de Villiers, who reached the milestone in 64 balls against the West Indies at the SCG in the 2015 World Cup. Wade got there in 68 balls.

The Tasmanian took apart an understrength and inexperienced Derbyshire attack with disdain to completely overshadow the six-wicket haul by paceman Andrew Tye.

Playing his first game of the campaign, Tye claimed 6-65 from 10 overs after captain Travis Head won the toss and elected to bowl.

Using his full repertoire of slower balls, yorkers and bouncers, Tye took regular wickets throughout the innings on a beautiful track for batting.

The signs of a drubbing were ominous early on in the run chase when Wade took 14 from the first over.

D’Arcy Short’s second-ball dismissal did nothing to curb Wade’s aggression as he unleashed a series of devastating strikes that sent the white Kookaburra ball flying in all directions and the crowd ducking for cover.

The 31-year-old got to his half-century in just 20 balls and zoomed to triple figures with eight fours and eight sixes. Clearly he was not interested in running on Sunday.

Supporting Wade was Head, who banished anything overpitched in his 66-ball 68 in a 205-run stand.

After Wade had struck his 11th six - a majority that were heaved over the leg-side - Head hit a maximum of his own but dragged on the next ball.

Wade followed his skipper back to the pavilion four balls later to a standing ovation after he missed an audacious reverse flip over short third man to be trapped in front by spinner Matt Critchley.

By then it was 3-229 in the 24th over and the result was academic.

Much like they did in Northampton in the series opener, Peter Handscomb (29 not out) and Mitch Marsh (29 not out) ticked off the remaining runs to secure the victory.

It looked as though Australia A might be chasing a modest total after Michael Neser (1-48) and Sean Abbott (2-40) reduced the hosts to 2-26 inside eight overs.

But an 89-run stand between Wayne Madsen and Leus du Plooy put some starch in the Derbyshire innings.

Madsen fell for 48 to Tye but du Plooy carried on to his first century for Derbyshire, a splendid hundred that was brought up with a dashing straight six off Neser.

Six Derbyshire batsmen scored between 10-19 as Tye and the ‘A’ pacemen chipped away to restrict the home side to 9-282 from 50 overs.

Ashton Agar (0-66 from eight overs), Marsh (0-34 from six) and Short (0-27 from six) failed to take a wicket.

Australia A’s next opponent is Worcester on Tuesday in Kidderminster after New Road was left unavailable due to mass flooding. 

Australia A: Wade, Short, Head (c), Handscomb (wk), Marsh, Patterson, Pucovski, Agar, Neser, Abbott, Tye

Derbyshire: Godleman (c), Lace, Madsen, du Plooy, Hughes, Hosein (wk), Critchley, Dal, Hudson-Prentice, Watt, Taylor

Australia A tour of the UK

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Australia A one-day squad: Travis Head (c), Matthew Wade, Will Pucovski, Peter Handscomb, Mitch Marsh (vc), D'Arcy Short, Kurtis Patterson, Ashton Agar, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood (vc), Sean Abbott, Andrew Tye

Australia A four-day squad: Tim Paine (c), Marcus Harris, Kurtis Patterson, Will Pucovski, Travis Head (vc), Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade, Mitch Marsh, Michael Neser, Jon Holland, James Pattinson, Jackson Bird, Josh Hazlewood (vc), Chris Tremain

One-day fixtures:

June 20: Australia A beat Northamptonshire by six wickets

June 23: Australia A v Derbyshire, County Ground

June 25: Australia A v Worcestershire, Kidderminster CC

June 30: Australia A v Gloucestershire, Bristol

July 2: Australia A v Gloucestershire, Bristol

Four-day fixtures:

July 7-10: Australia A v Sussex, Arundel

July 13-16: Australia A v England Lions, Canterbury

July 23-26: Australia v Australia A, Hampshire