Derbyshire v Northamptonshire T20

First up tonight, I would like to send a get well message to Bob Taylor, the greatest of all Derbyshire wicket-keepers, as he awaits heart bypass surgery following a heart attack.

Bob was a hero of all of us in our youth and he remains one of the nicest men in the game. Anyone who has met him will tell you the same and I am sure that you will join me in wishing him well in the coming days and weeks.

Moving on, Derbyshire have a chance to get back to winning ways tomorrow, albeit against a side that beat us easily in the corresponding fixture a few weeks back. It is an unchanged side, although Graeme Welch has announced opportunity for younger players in the remaining games.

I don't agree with those who felt we should have batted last night. It is always easy to be wise after the event and McCullum could have gone early, just as Alex Hales did the week before. If you don't get players of his quality early, the chances are that he will punish you. Leicestershire got him today, but that is cricket. Great players can be dismissed, but when it is their day they will take you apart. We, I assume, thought he might over-reach in the Powerplay, but he didn't and, like a Duracell battery, he kept going on and on.

The visitors side has yet to be announced, but the man who won them that game, David Willey, is out for four weeks with an ankle injury and Shahid Afridi's stint has ended. The local newspaper is suggesting the same team that lost narrowly to Nottinghamshire last week, so one assumes:

Levi
Cobb
Duckett
Crook
Keinveldt
Rossington
Wakeley
Keogh
Stone
White
Azarullah.

With short boundaries, a fast outfield and aggressive batsmen on both sides, this should be a high-scoring match, more likely than not decided by the crucial first six overs. We have done better in this period than in previous summers, but, as we know, T20 wins are about stringing together a consistent 40 overs.

We can win this tomorrow, but will need to do exactly that to do so.