Sussex v Derbyshire preview

The last match preview of the summer and the last of Dave Houghton's tenure as Head of Cricket.

A brief one, too. Yours truly has done a 13 hour day and start again at 8 tomorrow, so succinct works well tonight..

We have a fourteen-man squad down at Hove, led by Billy Godleman. Will it be his last match as skipper? Time will tell and much will depend on the new man in charge.

That squad :

Godleman, Came, Wood, du Plooy, Madsen, Critchley, Guest, Dal, Hughes, Thomson, McKiernan, Aitchison, Melton, Moulton.

Come to think of it, that is pretty much those left standing.. 

Sussex have George Garton and Chris Jordan away to the IPL and Fynn Hudson-Prentice can't play by the terms of the loan agreement (and broke his hand against Leicestershire anyway). Tom Haines will skipper the side and is the country's most prolific batsman.

Their squad :

Haines, Atkins, Brown, Carson, Carter, Crowcombe, Hindley, Hunt, Ibrahim, Orr, Rawlins, Sarro, Ward.

Dave Houghton will want to sign off with a win and we really should, against a weakened side. It shouldn't and wouldn't, for me, mask a season of major disappointment.

Fingers crossed we can winter on a win, the only side this far to have no wins in the long-form game.

As an aside, Matt Critchley could reach a thousand runs if he makes a hundred between his two possible innings in this match.

I hope he does. He has come through the summer in credit and we must hope he is still in the club when we all emerge from hibernation.