Derbyshire v Yorkshire Vitality Blast preview

There has been no squad announcement from either Derbyshire or Yorkshire ahead of tomorrow's game at Chesterfield. 

That being the case, I am making assumptions here.

I expect Derbyshire to omit Caleb Jewell and go with their two overseas bowlers. While Harry Came has made a strong case for inclusion, with two T20 centuries for the Second XI, he played for Swarkestone today and I don't think that would have happened were he in contention for this game.

I expect Mickey Arthur to go with this team:

Donald, Andersson, Naeem, Madsen, Montgomery, Whiteley, Basra, Potts, Aitchison, Javed, Moqim

Basra and Naeem could switch, depending on their form in the nets. 

I watched Yorkshire lose away to Hampshire on Friday night, a game that the home side came close to throwing away with some silly shots. The white rose county fielded Hasan Ali and Faheem Ashraf as overseas, as well as Sam Whiteman and Andrew Tye as Aussies with English passports. Throw in Moeen Ali and it was a side far removed from days when county borders were carefully scrutinised to check eligibility for Yorkshire colours. 

Their side was:

Bairstow, Lyth, Luxton, Whiteman, Moeen Ali, Revis, Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Tye, Chohan, Moriarty 

Derbyshire cannot afford many more slip-ups if they hope to qualify. As I have written before, they need everyone on top of their game to win, but I do think this side gives the best opportunity of doing so. 

At some point this golden run against Yorkshire has to come to an end, but we must hope it continues for at least another year. Of course, the brutal truth is that, bragging rights aside, it counts for nothing if they fail to qualify. 

For Derbyshire to do so, they need to show more nous when they are batting, especially in the Powerplay. Nye Donald has to see his job as continuing throughout the innings, not ending at the end of the sixth over, while foolhardy strokes to *maybe* get another boundary in the sixth over usually only puts teams under unnecessary pressure when there are at least three wickets down and plenty of time to bat. The odds on winning lessen dramatically at that point.

They should have beaten Yorkshire at Headingley and the win against a resurgent Nottinghamshire side was there for the taking at Trent Bridge. 

Winning those games would have seen them on top of the group right now.

Tomorrow we will see if anything has been learned in the course of those defeats.

With a capacity crowd, it should make for a great afternoon's entertainment, but because the gap is too wide between our best and worst games, I really can't call this one.