County Championship: Monday musings on Middlesex vs Derbyshire at Lord's

Middlesex’s Steven Finn at Lord’s

On Wednesday we’re going to Lord’s. Had we paid much heed to the pre-season comments of experts, it may well have been Lourdes. Pray for a miracle.

Yet, we head there in good spirits after a battling display at Edgbaston. Early reports suggest that James Harris won’t play, but Steve Finn looks set to do so. It will make for another stiff challenge, but we could hardly expect to gain promotion then play reserve sides. To become one of the best, you have to mix it with them, so let’s start now.

It looks like being a very open division, certainly if the opening round of games is anything to go by. Somerset and Nottinghamshire will have been among most people’s favourites, yet both went down to defeats. As I wrote a couple of weeks back, any side could make a bad start, as Lancashire did last year, then spend the rest of the campaign playing catch up. The weather may have been a contributing factor to the Edgbaston draw, but no one should underestimate the importance of those draw points.

I don’t expect any change to the thirteen from the first game, as no one deserves to be omitted after only one and a half innings in four days. Nor was there anyone making a forcible case for inclusion from the second team fixture last week, which ended in a heavy defeat to Essex. The final eleven will be decided after Karl Krikken and Wayne Madsen have a look at the Lord’s pitch, but at this stage of the season, it is unlikely to be anything other than a track to help their star England seamer.

That being the case, it should be something that will make Messrs Palladino, Groenewald and Turner smile knowingly. It will then come down to which side’s batting copes the best with conditions. Billy Godleman will know the track pretty well, having started his career there, while Shivnarine Chanderpaul has batted and batted, and batted at Lords a few times.

It will be a thrill for Derbyshire fans to see their heroes back at the home of cricket. It will be an even greater one for the players themselves to appear there, many of them for the first time. One can only imagine what it will be like for them to walk through the Long Room on the way to the wicket.

I hope that the weather is favourable and we get a good game. Middlesex will be up for it after thrashing Nottinghamshire, so it will be a good test for our boys.

Will they rise to it? I think so, but we’ll find out soon enough.