Derbyshire v Gloucestershire preview

Sorry about the late blog tonight but its festival week at work and I've four late nights on the trot!

Tomorrow we play the first of two games that we need to win. Looking at the opposition, we really should fancy our chances. The visitors are missing Marcus North, who is on international training with the Aussies, as well as Craig Spearman who is injured. Hamish Marshall is playing and often does well against us, while Alex Gidman, a target for John Morris before he re-signed for Gloucestershire, will be the rock in the middle order. Jon Lewis is still a good seamer and Steve Kirby is nothing if not whole-hearted. The visitors line up is:

Kadeer Ali
Will Porterfield
Hamish Marshall
Alex Gidman
Chris Taylor
David Brown
Steven Snell (wkt)
Jon Lewis (cpt)
Steve Kirby
Anthony Ireland
Richard Dawson
Vikram Banerjee

Banerjee is likely to miss out in that side, which is at the start of a major rebuild.

As for Derbyshire, we're pretty much at full strength, except for the injured Tom Lungley. Tom is a nice guy and a talented bowler, but last season apart has lost a lot of his career to injury. This has been another one to write off and next year is a big one for him.

Our line up is:

Chris Rogers (cpt)
Paul Borrington
Dan Birch
Wavell Hinds
Greg Smith
Dan Redfern
Tom New
Jonathan Clare
Graham Wagg
Jake Needham
Ian Hunter
Charl Langeveldt

James Pipe is deemed not quite ready for four day cricket after his broken finger, so Tom New again deputises. The final place would appear to be between Jake Needham and Ian Hunter and I would guess the spinner will miss out, mainly on the basis that Hunter is in better form. That would leave Dan Redfern and Greg Smith to share spinning duties and Derbyshire to hope that it doesn't spin ...

So, with four days of decent weather I fancy a win. Having said that, I'll be more confident once we've dismissed Messrs Marshall and Gidman in both innings.