It is again, on paper, a winnable fixture for us and the game would appear to be blessed by four days of dry weather. All we need now is for good Derbyshire to turn up and the pitch not to be one where a squillion plays a trillion in the first innings. If we can get something similar to Cardiff last week, that would do me fine, with the eleven tweaked to enhance our chances.
Leicestershire are missing several bowlers, including Josh Hull, Roman Walker, Chris Wright, Rehan Ahmed and Wiaan Mulder and today have dipped into the loan market to recruit Somerset all-rounder Ben Green for three games. He takes his place In the following squad:
Budinger, Cox, Currie, Green, Handscomb, Harris, Hill, Kimber, Mike, Patel, Salisbury, Scriven, Trevaskis, Wood.
They have a good batting lineup with the Australians Ryan Harris and Peter Handscomb, while Rishi Patel has had a fine start to the summer after his breakout season last time around. Derbyshire will need to bowl with discipline to work their way through a long batting order, while the attack cannot be underestimated.
Mickey Arthur has named a squad of fourteen and with no knowledge of anything different to the usual Derby wicket, I would be surprised if there was any change to the side that played at Cardiff last week. As I wrote the other day, there may be consideration to playing two spinners, but we will need to see.
Likely side:
Came, Reece, Lloyd, Madsen, Guest, Donald, Dal, Thomson, Chappell, Conners, Tickner (Brown, Morley and Lamb also in the squad).
It should be a good game and I hope that plenty of people manage down to watch it live. I wish I was there myself, but must content myself, for now, with the excellent live stream.
I think there's enough in the Derbyshire side to win this one, but to do so will need a big effort and certainly a reversal of home fortune in recent seasons.
What do you think?
Closing tonight, if you were interested in hearing my thoughts on the game and on the match at Cardiff, I will be on the North Derbyshire radio sports programme tomorrow evening at 6:30 p.m.
Download the app to listen, or you can get it on catch up for 7 days afterwards. Here is the link
https://northderbyshireradio.com/radioplayer/index.html
A good chance for Derbyshire to get up and running.
ReplyDeleteLeicestershire do look short in the bowling department as you mentioned. They do keep batting so still manage to get some competitive scores. Personally think it might be a draw if any weather impacts. Although the Duke’s ball will surely help.
Up at Yorkshire, I was very impressed by Leicestershire team spirit, laughing and joking away in the warm ups so they obviously enjoy playing under Thomas and Taylor.
Looking forward to another four days of red ball cricket. Do enjoy this time of the season where the focus is on the County Championship.