MITCHELL Starc made a flying start to his Yorkshire career as his new county beat Derbyshire in the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition at Headingley.

The Australian left-arm fast bowler put the frustration of 14 flights in 12 days behind him to swap air miles for wickets as the visitors slumped from 154-1 halfway through the 28th over to post only 219-8 after Andrew Gale had invited them to bat.

Starc, Yorkshire’s career took off yesterday thanks to figures of 3-28 His first five-over spell went for 17 runs before he returned to claim the wickets of Ross Whiteley, Dan Redfern and Tom Poynton.

Whiteley was caught at deep extra cover in Starc’s sixth over before Redfern was caught behind and Poynton bowled with a yorker in the penultimate over of the innings.

Gary Ballance then starred with the bat to see his side home by seven wickets with 14 balls to spare. He clubbed four leg-side sixes in an unbeaten 77 off 60 balls.

Yorkshire were under the cosh early on thanks to an opening stand of 137 inside 25 overs between New Zealander Martin Guptill and Chesney Hughes.

Guptill, dropped on 17 by Phil Jaques at short midwicket, bludgeoned five sixes in 89 off 83 balls and Hughes hit 50 off 73, falling the ball after he had reached his milestone to Moin Ashraf.

Derbyshire looked set for a score above 250 with those two together, but their innings fell away dramatically as Anthony McGrath also contributed, continuing his recent fine all-round form.

McGrath returned 2-24 from six, getting key man Guptill caught behind and trapping Wayne and Madsen in successive overs to leave the score at 169-4 in the 31st.

Iain Wardlaw and Azeem Rafiq, in the side in place of fellow spinner Adil Rashid, both struck as Derbyshire lost their last seven wickets for 54 runs.

Yorkshire were always ahead of the game in reply, although they were not necessarily in complete control.

Adam Lyth and Gale both fell in the thirties - and when Jaques swept David Wainwright to short fine-leg for 47, leaving the score at 153-3 in the 30th, the hosts still needed 67 off 64 balls.

But Ballance, who has been in the runs in the last two Championship matches, put his foot on the accelerator at just the right time with Joe Root (28 not out) for company in an unbroken fourthwicket stand of 70 in eight overs.

The game breaking over came in the 35th when Ballance hit six and two fours in three balls off Garry Park’s medium pace.