Derbyshire v Birmingham Bears Vitality Blast

It is the last T20 match of a disappointing competition tomorrow night. It is also an opportunity for Derbyshire to win a match at Derby, which they haven't done in this format in 2025. 

I'll be honest, when we signed Mohammad Ghazanfar to go with Samit Patel, I thought we would play to our obvious strengths and use more worn pitches. We haven't and it has probably been to the detriment of results.

I had an interesting email from Robert today, who said that Derbyshire have not replaced Mattie McKiernan or Alex Hughes in this format and he is right. While Mattie will be remembered for being hammered around Taunton by Rilee Rossouw and around Derby by Mitchell Santner, he was a canny bowler who only went for 8.1 an over during his career in T20 while contributing useful runs and fielding brilliantly. Alex did the same and only went for 8.4... we would have taken that from a fifth bowler this summer. 

I think Martin Andersson could fill that role in the future, if he has a skipper with greater faith in him. For me, that should be Nye Donald next year. 

There is no suggestion that Derbyshire will offer opportunity to younger players, as Mickey Arthur suggested, so I suspect we will go with the side that played at Headingley last weekend, against Birmingham Bears tomorrow.

So that will be: 

Jewell, Donald, Came, Madsen, Whiteley, Andersson, Patel, Chappell, Aitchison, Ghazanfar, Brown 

Thomson, Morley, Wagstaff, Guest also in squad 

Birmingham will need to win this game, because if they don't and Leicestershire beat Yorkshire, they may not qualify for the knockout stage. 

Their squad: 

Davies, Hassan Ali, Barnard, Bethell, Briggs, Garton, Gleeesob, Hain, Latham, Lintott, Miles, Mosley, Smith, Yates

After the hammering at Edgbaston, it is hard to see a Derbyshire win here, but it would be good if, at the end of a disappointing tournament for us, we at least produced a performance to make the loyal home support proud.

What do you think?