Championship Preview: Derbyshire v Surrey

Hashim Amla will lead Surrey side

There's been a different Derbyshire on view in the past week: one that scraps as a team rather than relying on the contribution of specific individuals. Such efforts have been successful in our better teams of yore and will undoubtedly be in the future. 

Graeme Welch has, somewhat unsurprisingly, made no change to the side that won with some comfort against Leicestershire. There would have been a recall for Tim Groenewald in his mind, but his comments after the announcement of his departure suggest that youth will get its chance in the remainder of the season, so Tom Taylor keeps his place.

Our visitors tomorrow have a strong squad with plenty of international experience, headed by the new South African captain Hashim Amla. With Vikram Solanki, Jade Dernbach, Steven Davies and Tim Tremlett also in the squad, they will provide a sterner test, and we will need to be at our best against them. I think the toss will be important, and it would be good to see Wayne Madsen's success in the T20 coin tossing continued tomorrow. 

We are undoubtedly a good enough side to take a win from this game, but the onus is on the players to show that the result last week was a turning point and not just a one-off. There's a good four-day forecast ahead that gives every chance of a positive result. Let's hope that we're on the right end of it. 

Postscript: Closing on my piece last night, a comparator: My works cricket team has three 'proper' cricket players and lots of keen beginners. So, our games work, one of us opens, one scores and one umpires when we are batting. This ensures we might score runs, record an accurate total and make the correct decisions. It's the only legitimate reason I can think of to not have your best players at the top of the order.

I rest my case...