Birmingham Bears v Derbyshire preview

You see, that's the thing with T20.

It only needs a batsman to come out flying on either side and it can make a mockery of predictions and form. Like Riki Wessels last night, after the hardest work appeared to have been done.

Tomorrow's opponents Warwickshire (for it is they, in an animal guise...) have some good players but are having a wretched summer. They seem destined for the drop in the four-day game and have committed the cardinal sporting sin of letting a good team grow old together. A look at the side that played Yorkshire last night shows a collection of players who are unlikely to be whippets in the field, but can still produce the goods with bat and ball.

As good as Yorkshire and Northamptonshire, who we beat? No. Probably on a par with Worcestershire, who we also beat, but carrying a threat beyond the playing field in possibly being underestimated, as the likes of Ian Bell, Tim Ambrose, Grant Elliott and Jeevan Patel have been good players for a long time. They may not have the constant flame of their pomp, but from time to time they can turn it on and still win games.

Such a game could easily be tomorrow, and our increasingly impressive side must guard against complacency or they will get badly burned.

I don't see any changes in the Derbyshire side, unless late injury dictates otherwise and the only question, as mentioned earlier, is if there is a need for an additional bowling or batting specialist in the side. The way our batting is going I don't think so and, if your top seven don't get you runs, why should you expect a bloke at eight to do so? It's a shame that Ben Cotton hasn't the form of a couple of years back, when he looked a very good limited overs bowler, as he would have strolled into the side otherwise .

Taking the pace off seems to be the way we go, so I think it will be a straight call between Callum Brodrick or Hamidullah Qadri, with the former likely to get the nod. Given he hasn't yet batted or bowled, it can hardly be claimed that he has let us down, can it? Slow and turning would be nice, though, for a wicket...

Our hosts look likely to field the side that lost to Yorkshire, which will thus line up:

Hain, Bell, Porterfield, Ambrose, Elliott, Thomason, de Grandhomme, Barker, Patel, Rankin, Hannon-Dalby.

With three Kiwis in that side, John Wright should have an idea what to expect, as should Matt Henry on the pitch.

A Derbyshire win? If we hope to progress in the competition, it has to be. Good players as they are, you would have to say we need to beat them, Durham and Leicestershire to go through. I can understand losing to Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire. To lose to the others, we are deluding ourselves with expectation of progress.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Good luck lads.