Derbyshire v Lancashire RLODC preview

There's no change for Derbyshire today, which thankfully means no further injuries than the one that ruled Luis Reece out of the rest of these group games.

One assumes that Hardus Viljoen will return for the game against Lancashire at the 3aaa County Ground, the winning of which will enable the county to put one foot, at least, into the quarter-finals. With such a tightly-contested group, however, it is hard to say what will be necessary to qualify with a degree of confidence at this stage. Apart from winning both of our remaining games, of course. That'll do it...

Viljoen's return will see either Callum Brodrick or Hamidullah Qadri drop out and the decision will be largely around whether an extra batsman or bowler is deemed the more important. Qadri bowled beautifully at Northampton and he continues to show a temperament that appears unfazed by occasion or opponent. He will get more opportunities as the summer progresses, as will Brodrick, who seems increasingly to be the next one to fully graduate from the academy to first team regular.

Our visitors have named fourteen to travel to Derby and they are 'enjoying' an up and down campaign so far. Certainly, a glance at their fans forum suggests they are not happy with team nor coach and the drums would be beating were they to go down to us today.

Their squad:

Liam Livingstone (C), Tom Bailey, Josh Bohannon, Karl Brown, Jordan Clark, Steven Croft, Alex Davies, Haseeb Hameed, Rob Jones, Joe Mennie, Graham Onions, Matt Parkinson, Stephen Parry, Dane Vilas

Plenty of talent in that squad, but as things stand I don't think Derbyshire are frightened of anyone. Opposition supporters will look at our side and worry about a lot of players and what they might do, knowing that we are a team in form and capable of beating them.

In the light of that form, and with what I hope will be a large crowd behind them, I am going for a Derbyshire win here.

We now have a core of experienced, contributing senior professionals whose attitude is beginning to rub off on the younger members of the squad. Thus far, whenever we have hit a problem and a game has been going away from us, someone has put up their hand and wrested the initiative back.

Let's hope that it continues today.

Good luck lads.