Last night, for an hour or so I was a Warwickshire fan, silently pleased at every dot ball and euphoric at every Yorkshire wicket. Tonight, for around three hours I will be a Lancashire fan, hoping that they beat Northamptonshire, thereby ensuring that one win from our remaining two games is enough for us to progress to the quarter finals.
It will be, as long as it comes against Northamptonshire of course, though if they beat Lancashire and then us they could leapfrog us by winning their final fixture against Durham. It will all be much simpler if we win on Friday, so I'll get my daughter to sit with her lucky gorilla (don't ask) on her knee and all will be well...
As I've written before, this has been a good T20 campaign by Derbyshire. There has been a little sub-standard cricket, but much less than in previous years and we've seen two years of sustained improvement. We beat Lancashire, who have finished above us, twice and should have beaten Warwickshire at Edgbaston having run them close at Derby. Nottinghamshire beat us, but we weren't embarrassed, which is why I have no fears about the next stage should we get there.
Reading IMWT, most fans fancy a game at Taunton against Somerset, where Messrs Durston and Jones would have points to prove. With Trescothick, Kieswetter and Pollard in the opposition it would test our bowlers, but assuming we were at full strength I would certainly not be as afraid of the fixture as I might have been in previous years. We would need to be at our best to win though, that's for sure.
Still, one thing at a time and first we need to win on Friday, or hope that another blanket of rain wipes out the programme this weekend, in which case we're home, if not dry. It is good to see the fans so upbeat after the disappointments of the Championship campaign. The reality is, of course, that we simply don't have a large enough staff to cope with the injuries we've had this year, so to fight battles on two or three fronts would be unrealistic. If you took two high quality cricketers like Graham Wagg and Jon Clare out of any side in the country they would struggle, but injuries to most of the seamers have made selecting a balanced side very difficult.
John Morris has said that the Derbyshire side is one in constant evolution and he will have a huge job this winter. If the regulations don't change, how does he replace Chris Rogers and Robin Peterson? If Graham Wagg is leaving, who can replace him? How can he reduce the age and improve the fitness of his seam bowling ranks? Are any of the youngsters, Chesney Hughes apart, ready for a regular berth in the side? Is there anything can be done to accelerate their development?
If we lose both matches at the weekend I will still consider this a season of progress, but the final proof of that will be missing. If we go through and lost at the next stage, so be it, but we've never been there before so I could handle that. Between now and the end of the season there is a lot of cricket to be played and there will be opportunities for players to stake a claim in next season's side. It is likely to show several changes to this year and time alone will tell if it is for the better.
It won't be for the want of trying though.
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