Time for the penultimate preview of the 2017 season and, pleasingly, an extra game at that most scenic of grounds, Chesterfield.
Queen's Park will always be my favourite ground and I hope that the weather and crowds are good to it over the next four days.
Derbyshire come into the game on a high, the splendid win over Sussex a highlight of a summer that has had a few, for the first time in a while. Gary Wilson and Imran Tahir return from international duty and the home faithful will enjoy the sight of Hardus Viljoen and Tahir in the same attack.
A squad of fourteen has been announced, as below:
Luis Reece
Ben Slater
Callum Brodrick
Wayne Madsen
Alex Hughes
Matt Critchley
Gary Wilson (captain)
Harvey Hosein
Tony Palladino
Hardus Viljoen
Will Davis
Harry Podmore
Hamidullah Qadri
Imran Tahir
Unless there is a desire to again test the mettle of Callum Brodrick before the summer ends, I would assume that he, Qadri and Tony Palladino will miss out. We need to see if Harry Podmore is worth a permanent deal between now and the end of the summer and tomorrow's final home game is a chance to look at a possible attack for 2018.
There are opportunities across the team for people to make a statement. Team strengthening will take place over the winter and this is a chance for players to sell their own talents. I hope that plenty of them take that opportunity.
Kent have also named a fourteen-man squad that lacks Matt Coles but includes the evergreen Darren Stevens, after another fine season, as well as players of past and potential England pedigree. It would be unrealistic to expect Viljoen to repeat the heroics of the last game, so others need to step up and share the wicket-taking responsibilities.
Their squad:
Daniel Bell-Drummond, Sean Dickson, Joe Denly, Sam Northeast, Sam
Billings, Zak Crawley, Darren Stevens, Will Gidman, Calum Haggett, Grant
Stewart, James Tredwell, Imran Qayyum, Matt Hunn, Oliver Robinson.
Thursday looks a bit of a washout, but much will depend on the wicket as to whether there is sufficient time for a positive result.
Here's hoping the locals get something to remember over the long winter months ahead.
Same old issue with the outfield. Derby. Chesterfield. It doesn't seem to matter. Getting beyond a joke now
ReplyDeleteAgree with Mark N and his comment about the grounds. The club MUST invest some, or all of the concert money in getting the outfield drainage sorted. Headquarters first, and then Chesterfield. We can't keep losing time in games, when every body else is playing.
ReplyDeleteThe way the forecast is looking, a draw is the most likely result, so as we are only involved in avoiding the wooden spoon, let's look to get maximum bonus points from this fixture, then see what happens.
On a brighter note, I can't make Tuesday, but have booked the free bus from Derby to come up for the final time this season tomorrow, and cheer the lads on.
Looking forward to it.
Oh dear, another day's cricket lost through the weather. This is becoming an almost regular feature of this summer in Derbyshire. And, once again, l made an aborted trip down to see some cricket. Fortunately l am retired so l didn't lose a day's holiday but nevertheless it's another wasted journey.
ReplyDeleteWe can't do anything about the weather but something needs to be done to prevent so many blank days. After that exhilarating performance against Sussex, l and no doubt many others were looking forward to some more entertaining cricket. With climate change and these torrential downpours we are now experiencing on a more regular basis we need to spend money on better drainage and covers if necessary. Have to agree with David Woolley that money from the concerts need to be used to improve both grounds resilience to rainfall otherwise we are going to see more days lost.
I agree with all the previous comments. We must lose far more days cricket to wet outfields than any other first-class county. That costs the club precious points as well as money and if it goes on we will lose supporters too. It's high time the club did something about it!
ReplyDeleteIt had rained heavily in Chesterfield for a significant chunk of the preceding 48hrs and I personally fully expected today's cancellation.
ReplyDelete