Derbyshire v Netherlands preview

With no disrespect intended, Derbyshire have an ideal start to get their CB40 campaign up and running tomorrow at the County Ground against the Netherlands.

While the visitors acquitted themselves well in the recent World Cup, Alex Kervezee is back with Worcestershire and Essex all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate doesn't play for them in this competition. Fast bowler Mark Jonkman, who bowled well last year, has been undergoing remedial work on a suspect action and is also out. Nor is there any sign of former Sussex veteran Baz Zuiderent in their travelling squad, which is:

Peter Borren (c), Wesley Barresi (wk), Eric Szwarczynski , Tom Cooper , Tom Whol ,Bradley Kruger , Mudassar Bukhari , Pieter Seelaar , Wilfred Diepeveen , Tom Heggelman , Berend Westdijk , Michael Swart, Shane Mott (overseas, Australia).


So no Michael Dighton either, after his heroics that resulted in last year's embarrassing defeat at the County Ground. The visitors have Australian grade cricketer Shane Mott, a left arm seamer and hard hitting batsman as their overseas player for the first four games of the campaign. He played his cricket in Huddersfield last year for Scholes, taking 52 wickets at 22 and scoring 602 runs at 33. Decent figures, but there's a big difference between Aussie first grade and county cricket.

As for Derbyshire, John Morris is likely to be missing Jon Clare and Usman Khawaja, while Tony Palladino may be rested after his efforts against Middlesex. Garry Park will surely come in after his outstanding knock in the Seconds last week, while there is a debut for Yorkshire loanee Azeem Rafiq (pictured). I'm not sure if Ross Whiteley's injury is serious or not, but I'd expect tomorrow's side to line up along these lines, with Luke Sutton suggesting on Twitter that he'll be fit:

Wes Durston
Chesney Hughes
Garry Park
Wayne Madsen
Greg Smith
Dan Redfern
Luke Sutton
Ross Whiteley/Tim Groenewald
Azeem Rafiq
Steffan Jones
Mark Turner

I don't think that will be too far away. We start a Championship game at Leicester on Wednesday and John Morris will want his first choice seamers fit and rested if at all possible. I'd guess that Groenewald would also be putting his feet up in an ideal situation.

My forecast? Surely a win. I'll be very disappointed otherwise.

Postscript: Mind you, as Yorkshire are finding today, you take these teams lightly at your peril. I can't decide whether the Netherlands are improving or Yorkshire are going through a nightmare since their collapse against Nottinghamshire.

I'll stand by my assertion though - if we are to be taken seriously by people in the press and media, we need to beat these sides.