Surrey v Derbyshire preview

And so we come to the penultimate game of the season and a trip for Derbyshire down to the big smoke for a game against Surrey. At t'Oval, if you will...

Graeme Welch has announced a thirteen-man squad for the game, which includes a sizeable young element, headed, in youth at least, by Harvey Hosein, who makes his county first-class debut at the age of eighteen. I'm sure all supporters wish him well and will follow the formative steps in a cricket career with great interest.

The squad in full:

Ben Slater, Billy Godleman, Wayne Madsen, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wes Durston,  Alex Hughes, 
Harvey Hosein, Wayne White, David Wainwright, Tony Palladino, Mark Footitt, Ben Cotton, Tom Taylor.


Two will miss out and that looks like being two of the seamers. There's an argument for playing all of them, of course - experience for the younger ones, against the reliability of the older ones. Surrey will doubtless hope Mark Footitt is rested, but I'm sure our lethal weapon will want a chance to impress a few journalists whose idea of a trip oop north sees them get a nosebleed when they reach Birmingham...

As for our hosts, they have also named a thirteen-man squad which lines up:

Gary Wilson (captain), Zafar Ansari, Gareth Batty, Rory Burns, Steven Davies, Jade Dernbach, Matthew Dunn, Arun Harinath, Aneesh Kapil, Tim Linley, Stuart Meaker, Jason Roy, Vikram  Solanki 

They will provide a stiff test, but despite the reverse in Cardiff, this is a much-improved Derbyshire team in quality, as well as spirit. 

If the weather stays fine, I could see us chalk up another win in a vastly improved second half of season. 

In closing tonight, two quick comments - Shivnarine Chanderpaul now just 454 runs behind Brian Lara's West Indies record total after yet another unbeaten innings, this time 84, against Bangladesh. He's not yet been out in this series and remains an extraordinary little batsman.

Finally, congratulations to Sandiacre Town CC for winning the Royal London National Club Championship. There's classy cricket being played throughout the county at all levels.

Well done guys! Thoroughly deserved.