Ali the mystery bowler can bat

Derbyshire 263 Durham 102-3

With a name like Mohammed Ali you would expect a chap to know how to make an entrance. The latest edition to Derbyshire's roll-call did precisely that on his debut here, introducing himself by rattling off 12 boundaries in a 35 ball half-century, batting at No 9.

However, a name to remember he may not be. Although announced on the public address as Mohammed Ali, he is the same player who appeared once for Glamorgan last season as Syed Bukhari, under which moniker he played against Cardiff UCCE.

Confused? Not nearly so much as the spectators here will be if their morning paper's scorecard suggests he was a figment of their imagination.

If the matter of what he is to be called needs clearing up, however, there seems to be no mystery over his pedigree. Syed Mohammed Ali Bukhari, to use his full title, is a 28-year-old left-arm pace bowler who's career in his native Pakistan has yielded 170 first class wickets. It was just his luck that Glamorgan have a surfeit of seamers and told him he was not needed this year. Their loss could be Derbyshire's gain, apparently. A British citizen since last autumn, moreover, he qualifies in a cricketing respect as English.

Given that it is his prowess as a bowler that interests Derbyshire, who are paying him by the match, the revelation of his ability with the bat came as a significant bonus, enabling Derbyshire to add 64 runs for the last three wickets, all bar 11 of them from his bat.

Most were plundered against a left-arm spinner growing weary from 24 overs unchanged – the young Graeme Bridge will wish he had been taken off when his figures were still respectable – but there was no arguing with the technical quality of Ali's, sorry Bukhari's, strokes, until Paul Collingwood saw him off via a slice to gully, where the fielder happened to be Bridge.

Derbyshire, put in, will feel they under-achieved, having slipped from 107 for 1 on the back of Michael Di Venuto's 56, to 107 for 4 before Dominic Cork's positive 56 restored order. Cork then struck two blows with the ball to dismiss both of the Durham openers but a 70-run partnership between Martin Love and Collingwood, ended when Jason Kerr dismissed the Queenslander for 43, gave the visitors something to build on today.

Derbyshire have suspended Graeme Welch and Tom Lungley for one Championship match after a breach of club rules during last week's match against Glamorgan in Cardiff. The pair were not selected for the current game.