Natwest T20 Blast : Derbyshire v Leicestershire
Graeme Welch has named a 13-man squad for tomorrow's game against Leicestershire that starts the Chesterfield cricket festival. The ground that Sachin Tendulkar called his favourite in the world, not just because he scored his first century for India there, plays host to six days of cricket in the next week, and I hope that the week is as well supported as usual.
I'll be there in spirit this week, but, having lined up visits down south at the start and end of September as well as another to Scarborough in August, I won't manage this one. In ticking the delightful Yorkshire coastal ground from my 'to do' list, however, I just have the Chesterfield cricket festival left on it. One of these years, hopefully soon, I will be there for the duration.
Derbyshire’s squad for tomorrow, looking for its second win of the T20 summer, is as follows:
Wes Durston, Chesney Hughes, Gareth Cross, Wayne Madsen, Marcus North, Scott Elstone, Alex Hughes, Tony Palladino, David Wainwright, Greg Cork, Mark Turner, Matt Higginbottom, Tom Knight
There's a strong argument for Tom Knight returning to the side after his heroics with the second team this week, but I would hope that the Derbyshire bowling is better than in the season-opener for this competition at Grace Road, where it bordered on shambolic. With a greater emphasis on spin bowling, the attack seems more in keeping with accepted practice now, but having a few younger sets of legs in the field is never a bad thing.
We always seem to reserve our worst for Leicestershire in this competition, so it would be nice to see us go about tomorrow's game more professionally. Their squad is packed with full of aggressive batsmen who are well suited to the format, while the return of Naik, Buick and Shreck gives the attack a more menacing look than in the recent four-day game at Leicester.
Their squad:
Cobb, O'Brien, Smith, Eckersley, Boyce, Styris, Wells, Taylor, Raine, Naik, Buck, Shreck, Ireland.
If Derbyshire show that they have learned the harsh lessons of this year's competition and use greater common sense with bat and ball, we can win this. If not, then it could be another tough afternoon.
I'm going to go for a win. We're due another one, and there are gradual signs of improvement.
More from me tomorrow.