Derbyshire v Lancashire

Wow! Two and a half thousand hits already...

Thanks so much to regular (hey, and even sporadic) readers of this blog. It's really gratifying to see the hit count mount on a daily basis. If you like it, tell your friends, if there's something you'd like to see, let me know in a comment.

Well, today's the day when we can take a giant step for mankind... sorry, Derbyshire cricket if we can beat Lancashire at the Field of Dreams. The visitors have had an inconsistent campaign so far, with a home loss to Scotland the low point, but they have a lot of batting that we will need to work through to win this one. They also have injuries, and are missing Dominic Cork, Glen Chapple, Andrew Flintoff and Mal Loye for this game. Their squad is:

Gareth Cross
Stuart Law (cpt)
Paul Horton
Mohammad Yousuf
Francois du Plessis
Steven Croft
Luke Sutton (wkt)
Kyle Hogg
Simon Marshall
Sajid Mahmood
Stephen Cheetham
Oliver Newby
Tom Smith

Derbyshire also have injury concerns, with skipper Rikki Clarke, James Pipe and Tom Lungley all set for late fitness tests. Given the importance of the game, I would be surprised if they didn't play and would expect this side to take the field:

Steve Stubbings
Chris Rogers
John Sadler
Dominic Telo
Rikki Clarke
James Pipe
Graham Wagg
Jonathan Claire
Tom Lungley
Charl Langeveldt
Nayan Doshi

The main concern is the lack of an extra bowler if captain Clarke's thumb fracture prevents him from bowling, and we all hope that the top order fires. It may be that Dan Redfern could slot in to the middle order, depending on his exams which would give us another option, but Greg Smith's return is eagerly awaited, as is the arrival of Wavell Hinds. Let's not forget that the latter is available for the quarter-final - IF we get there.

Come on Derbyshire!