Kent v Derbyshire - team news

I wasn't too far wrong with my suggested squad of last night, with Peter Burgoyne (and Alex Hughes) part of the Derbyshire squad that has travelled down to Kent for the start of the game tomorrow.

Logically the two talented youngsters will share twelfth man duties, but they should both have plenty of opportunities to play in such matches in the years ahead. The Derbyshire side will therefore line up as follows:

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

There's no definitive news on the Kent side as yet, but with keeper Geraint Jones set to make his 100th consecutive championship appearance, a notable record, they are likely to be close to the following:

Key
Northeast
Blake
Nash
Powell
Stevens
Jones
Coles
Davies
Riley
Shreck

The absence of Tredwell on international duty could be crucial, especially as the game wears on, but Adam Riley is a promising young off-spinner who could well fill in, unless they prepare a seaming track and go with just four bowlers plus Nash's occasional seam. They are a side of considerable experience, which counts in their favour and Derbyshire will need to be at their best to get the desired result.

I still fancy us to get it though. At the back of the minds of the Derbyshire side will be their aspirations back in March and the fact that their gritty, aggressive cricket has taken them very close now. Below yesterday's post Marc makes the valid point that we cannot worry about the other matches and he is absolutely right. If we focus on our game and do all the right things, the other matches will not matter all that much.

It will be a close game, but I'm going to go for a Derbyshire win. Not out of misguided loyalty, nor because I'm being unduly optimistic. It is partly because I expect a result wicket and I feel that Derbyshire have the better all-round attack.

But more because I think that we're a good championship side, playing as a team and with a growing feeling that this is our year.

We'll see from tomorrow.

Postscript - there's an excellent article on Derbyshire on cricinfo today - well worth a read! Plus this one in the Telegraph. Nice to see the media noticing us at last...