Derbyshire v Northamptonshire County Championship preview

Ah, Chesterfield! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

I would have considered body part donation to be down for the start of the Chesterfield Cricket Week, but circumstances alas dictate otherwise. I will be following closely from afar though and look forward to seeing if we can carry on the euphoria of the win against Northamptonshire against the same opponents tomorrow.

We have a fourteen-man squad and its make up suggests that Billy Godleman will take his place at the top of the order. I won't be alone in being pleased about that, because it is where he is seen to best advantage.

There is no Lockie Ferguson, who is being protected from over-bowling for Cricket New Zealand, but there is a place in the squad for both Anuj Dal and Matt McKiernan. In the absence of the overseas player, this is the fourteen:

Godleman
Slater
Madsen
Hughes
Wilson
Critchley
Hosein
Dal
McKiernan
Palladino
Viljoen
Qadri
Wheeldon
Rampaul

The wicket will dictate the final eleven, of course and with Chesterfield often offering help to spin, especially after fairly dry spell, McKiernan could get the nod for a senior four-day debut. Unless Wilson opts not to keep wicket, my guess would be that Hosein, Dal and Wheeldon  will miss out, leaving an attack of three seamers plus Alex Hughes and three spinners.

Plenty of options for the skipper in the field!

Northamptonshire's squad has still to be announced, but with a small squad that is somewhat injury-ravaged, it won't be too different to the one that we put to the sword the other night.

If we go with my side, there is an onus laid on the top six to score runs. Both Matt Critchley and Ben Slater will want a good performance on a ground they know well and I hope that we put together another performance to match that of Thursday night.

The weather looks set fair for the match, which is nice, so there should be four days of cricket played at the most scenic of settings.

I'm going for a home win here, even though the visitors big hitters will eye up the short boundaries at Queens Park.

We'll see soon enough.