Derbyshire have a 14-man squad for tomorrow's game at Leicester and to be quite honest, I couldn't and won't attempt to call the final eleven.
All those involved have justification for inclusion, including on-loan Tom Milnes, who has 15 wickets in two matches for the seconds. If there are plans to offer him a deal at the end of the season, it may be that he is given an opportunity tomorrow to see what he has to offer at senior level.
However, there are plenty of our own, home-reared bowlers ahead of him and with Mark Footitt not required in the Test at Trent Bridge (the Aussies wouldn't have made fifty had he played...) there is a decent-looking squad available:
Billy Godleman
Ben Slater
Chesney Hughes
Wayne Madsen (captain)
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Wes Durston
Alex Hughes
Shiv Thakor
Harvey Hosein
Matthew Critchley
Tony Palladino
Ben Cotton
Mark Footitt
Tom Milnes
In-form players look likely to miss out, whichever eleven is chosen, so I am happy to leave that with the coach, who will see the pitch tomorrow before making his final choice.
The home side has Charlie Shreck back and looks a little stronger than that which played us in the one-day cup. Nevertheless, we should have enough in the tank to see off the home side, with Shiv Thakor keen to impress on his return to the club and Mark Footitt eager to show why he was called up by the national side. Their squad:
Cosgrove (capt), Agathangelou, Ali, Eckersley, Freckingham, Hill, McKay, O’Brien, Raine, Robson, Sayer, Shreck, Taylor.
The toss will be important, but weather permitting, I'll take a Derbyshire win here.
In closing tonight, warm congratulations to Derbyshire Under-17s for a wonderful win in the quarter-finals of the age group trophy against Yorkshire at Ticknall.
Their opponents batted first and racked up an impressive 300-5 in their 50 overs, but it was not enough to beat our lads.
After the loss of an early wicket, the wonderfully named Eddie Barlow (142) and Ryan Bramwell (110 not) added 229 for the second wicket and Derbyshire won with ease by seven wickets.
By any standards that is an impressive effort and warm congratulations go to the boys, who go on to play Nottinghamshire in the semi-final.
Unsurprisingly Leicestersire did us no favours yesterday, capitulating against Durham with bat and in the field. The match against Durham looks like a straight knockout game, I don't see Northants winning both their last 2 matches to upset things.
ReplyDeleteFor today's game I hope they pick Critchley, he deserves a good run in the side after his white ball performances. I'd leave out Chesney, Thakor and Milnes, although I'd like to think we could pick 11 names out of a hat and still beat them!
It hasn't been a great start, but this is a useful match to measure whether we really are making progress. After two big wins last year, and with Leicestershire showing little improvement, we really shouldn't expect any other result this time.
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