Logic suggests, having seen the trauma caused by Derbyshire's pace attack in the Vitality Blast game at Wantage Road this summer, that the wicket for tomorrow's four day game between the sides may not be so quick.
If it were, then both Lockie Ferguson and Hardus Viljoen would sleep tonight as if it was the night before Christmas.
Viljoen for Ravi Rampaul would be the only change I would expect to a winning Derbyshire side, unless the pace is not there, in which case they may go for the greater control of the latter.
As for our hosts, they will be without Ben Duckett, who has moved to Nottinghamshire, Richard Gleeson, who has moved to Lancashire and Rory Kleinveldt, who has left the county after sterling service.
Alex Wakely captains a side with some inexperience, but one that includes Ben Cotton in the announced thirteen.
Their squad: Wakely, Buck, Cobb, Cotton, Curran, Hutton, Levi, Procter, Rossington, Sanderson, Thurston, Zaib, Vasconcelos
I'm in bullish mood and so will go for a Derbyshire win here, building on the excellent win over Glamorgan and taking us into the season's final two games with a smile on our faces.
What do you think?
I think Derbyshire will win this one, but I'm not quite so confident. The weather's likely to take a chunk out of the second day, and while Northants recent record doesn't look great with 3 defeats out of their last 4, they pushed Kent further than most sides have at Canterbury, hammered Durham, made Middlesex follow on, and chased us all the way at Chesterfield. However many knocks they take, they are a side that always seem to come back for more, and have a few players who always turn up against Derbyshire. Whatever else, there is more grit and determination in them than we saw from Glamorgan last week.
ReplyDeleteWith fragile batting and no spin to speak of, I don't think they'll have any choice but to prepare a seam bowler's pitch, but as you point out, probably not one with the pace we saw in the T20. Sanderson, Buck and Hutton are a handy trio and a slowish green pitch will suit them better than our bowlers, Palladino apart. I'd expect Cotton to play as well, and it'll be interesting to see if the chance to get one back on us will galvanise him in a way that was so often missing when he was here.
For once, the Derbyshire team almost picks itself. All of the batsmen apart from Madsen contributed against Glamorgan. There were quite a lot of negative comments about some of it, but I thought that in the context of the pitch and conditions, the 20's and 30's were almost as important as the half-centuries from Godleman and Hughes. Although some of the dismissals looked limp if you saw them in isolation, they reflected the way players had chosen to deal with the conditions, and at least showed a sense of tactical thinking that isn't always evident in our batting.
I agree that the main choice is probably between Rampaul and Viljoen, and I'd tend towards the latter regardless of conditions. partly because Viljoen often seems to bowl well after he's been left out, as though the blow to his pride stimulates his radar into working, but also because Rampaul seems incapable of taking wickets, whatever the conditions. He didn't bowl badly against Glamorgan, but neither did he really threaten, and with an effective spell from Hughes, looked more like a fifth seamer than a strike bowler. Viljoen at least always offers the potential for wickets, so I'd go with him as long as he and Ferguson don't open together.
Not that I'm sure anyone would get the ball out of Palladino's hands at the moment.