Yorkshire v Derbyshire preview

By any standards, this is a massive match. While Derbyshire failed to acquit themselves well in the corresponding fixture at Chesterfield, it is hard to believe that a competitive young side that has played aggressive championship cricket all summer will roll over at Headingley over the next four days.

There will also be weather interruptions, with Wednesday likely to lose a fair portion of the afternoon/evening sessions. There may well be enough time for a positive result though, as I find it hard to believe that Yorkshire will prepare anything other than a result pitch. Whether that means leaving grass on for the seamers, or shaving it off to aid spin as the match goes on is the question. In previous summers the latter was more likely, but our hosts will be wary of the abilities of Wainwright and Durston if the ball turns. Mind you, for all the fact that they have talented seamers of their own, they will be wary of the talents of Palladino and Groenewald with the new ball, along with whoever gets the nod from Clare, Turner and Footitt alongside them.

The table tells no lies and Derbyshire are top by virtue of having won more matches than anyone. It also tells that this success is down to the ability of the attack to take wickets, as no side has more bowling bonus points. Conversely, no side in the top half has less batting bonus points and the side needs to show a collective responsibility to run-scoring, led of course by the top order.

Indeed, if you combined Yorkshire's batting and our bowling it would be a side of serious talent, yet Yorkshire miss out on two of their best with Bairstow and Root on England duty. It still leaves a decent outfit in the following announced squad of twelve:

Andrew Gale (capt), Adam Lyth, Phil Jaques, Gary Ballance, Anthony McGrath, Adil Rashid, Andrew Hodd (wk), Azeem Rafiq, Richard Pyrah, Ryan Sidebottom, Steve Patterson and Moin Ashraf.

Hodd has arrived from Sussex as wicket-keeper till the season end, though the released Gerard Brophy would perhaps have lengthened the batting line-up more than the admittedly talented Hodd. IF we can make early inroads and get the ever-dangerous Ballance in against the new ball, winning the match will become a strong possibility. I'd see their final place between Pyrah, who would lengthen the batting and Ashraf, a talented seamer.

As for Derbyshire, the squad has still to be announced but there are concerns over the fitness of both Jonathan Clare and Richard Johnson. In a match of this importance, it is unlikely that Karl Krikken will take any risks, especially when he has more than adequate alternatives at his disposal. I would see Derbyshire lining up as follows - David Wainwright's sore shoulder notwithstanding:

Wayne Madsen, Matt Lineker, Usman Khawaja, Wes Durston, Dan Redfern, Ross Whiteley, David Wainwright, Tom Poynton, Tony Palladino, Tim Groenewald, Mark Turner

It will be a battle royal, but the weather may well have the final say. Derbyshire will be far from unhappy with a draw and are unlikely to give our northern rivals a sniff of a win if they can help it.

My money lies on points shared on Saturday night, but we need to ensure we are totally focussed and don't underestimate dangerous and worthy opponents.

By the same token we should be confident. Such an attitude has got us top of the pile and in five games time this young team can become club legends, way ahead of any schedule that most fans predicted.

Over to you, now boys...