Derek William Randall (born 24 February 1951) is an English former cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Nottinghamshire and Tests and ODIs for England in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was a part of the English squad that finished as runners-up at the 1979 Cricket World Cup.
Known to cricketing colleagues and fans as "Arkle" after the racehorse, but always "Rags" to himself, he was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1980. He won plaudits for his talent in the covers, won his Nottinghamshire cap in 1973 and went on to score 28,456 runs in all first-class cricket. Randall batted for the successful Nottinghamshire team of the 1980s, twice winning the County Championship in 1981 and 1987.
With his team needing eighteen to win from the final over of the 1985 NatWest Trophy final, he hit sixteen from the first five balls, only to be caught in the outfield from the final delivery. He did finish on the winning side in the final of the same tournament two years later, and in the final of the Benson and Hedges Cup in 1989.
He compiled fifty-two hundreds in all, and made 209 and 146 in the same game against Middlesex in 1979, a feat unequalled at Trent Bridge. Later he turned out in Minor Counties cricket for Suffolk, playing in the NatWest Trophy at the age of 49, and in a match for "Old Suffolk" in 2004.
International career
Randall made his one-day international debut against West Indies in 1976, and his Test debut in India a few months later. He made his first Test century during the Centenary Test, his fifth test at Melbourne. Randall here scored his highest test score, 174, against an Australian attack led by Dennis Lillee. He famously doffed his cap to Lillee, after narrowly evading a savage bouncer, stating, "No point in hitting me there, mate, there's nothing in it." Fortunately England still won the match, Randall scoring the winning run, and in the next Test at Headingley, Randall was involved in run-out action for the right reason. As Graham Holburn put it, Randall's "lightning run-out of Rick McCosker ... amazed all who witnessed it". In the same game Randall took the catch which clinched the Ashes, turning a cartwheel in celebration.