Leicestershire v Derbyshire T20

Derbyshire 209-6 (Critchley 80*, Reece 51, Hughes 38)

Leicestershire 186 (Van Beek 3-37, Reece 2-24, Critchley 2-31)

Derbyshire won by 23 runs

Derbyshire got their Vitality Blast campaign up and running with a good and convincing win at Leicester tonight, marred only by an injury to Alex Hughes.

The all rounder, who had an excellent game, went down in pain after bowling the final ball of his spell. It looked like a stomach or inter-costal muscle injury, which could be a serious problem for player and club. We must keep our fingers crossed for him, after the injury to Wayne Madsen in the first match.

He had earlier played an excellent supporting innings to Matt Critchley, adding 85 together in just over seven glorious overs. It was savvy, classy, bullish and magnificent. They built well on another excellent innings from Luis Reece, whose 59 included four sixes and allowed us to recover from a slow start. I thought Luis could have been on for a ton tonight, but got a different result to a reverse sweep than at Old Trafford. 

Critchley's knock was breathtaking in its round the wicket stroke play and timing, his assault on Mike in the final over reminiscent of that on Tim Bresnan at Chesterfield a year or two back. He took Derbyshire past the 200 mark and teams seldom lose from such a position of strength.

Logan Van Beek took a wicket with the first ball of the home reply and later held a terrific catch to dismiss danger man Inglis. His later spell was less convincing, but he did OK tonight. Luis Reece and Matt Critchley followed their batting efforts by bowling well, as did Hughes, to complete good all round matches. 

Credit should also be given to Brooke Guest, who I thought did very well behind the stumps, taking an excellent catch to remove Mike and effectively end the home resistance. Nor did he allow any byes, no mean feat when the bowling was at times wayward. 

Fair play to Leicestershire, who kept going and scored runs down the order, but the final target was just too tough and Derbyshire kept taking wickets with sufficient regularity to peg them back. 

It was a good team performance but I  have to say this. As club captain, Billy Godleman is not contributing with the bat and is laboured in the field. Nor is his captaincy cause for inclusion, and bowling Hughes for four straight overs, the fourth getting hit as they lined him up, was naive. Even more so bowling Cohen only for one over, which went for just six runs.

It may appear churlish after a fine display, but if Billy stays in the team it must be he who picks the side. Cork and Houghton must surely see that the inclusion of Tom Wood, embarrassingly omitted thus far, would enhance a top order that would then be potentially spectacular. 

Keep Billy for the RLODC, where he will likely score heavily as always, but let's go horses for courses, gentlemen. No position in any side should be sacrosanct. Were it me, I would stand down for the good of the club, which would be a selfless act and thoroughly respected. 

I thought Harry Came looked promising, but there is no logic to the omission of Wood, who batted brilliantly at Headingley last year in his last opportunity. He has also scored at a faster rate than Came in the second team. A top five of Came, Reece, Wood, du Plooy and Critchley would be exciting for supporters and enhance chances of posting winning scores. 

If Godleman was to drop down another nine places in the order, the question of captaincy would arise, with Hughes, my choice of his replacement, potentially out. I would go with Luis Reece, a thoughtful, intelligent and skilled cricketer, especially in this format. There is also Critchley, who I think would relish such an opportunity and neither would let us down. 

But let's celebrate tonight, because with two tough games to come against Birmingham (who beat Nottinghamshire tonight) and a return against Lancashire, a defeat would have been disastrous.

As it was, this was a heartening display

Tweak those outstanding issues and we might win a few in this competition.