Preview: Derbyshire v Sussex

Sadly, a pretty virulent virus has put the kybosh on my first visit to God’s Own County for the season. Vocally, I am something akin to ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris of the much missed Old Grey Whistle Test, and not sure that a full day on the cricket ground is going to improve things at this stage.

So I will be following this one from afar and will schedule my first trip for next month instead, when hopefully it is warmer and has stopped raining. I’ve also got a good few books for the revamped book shop, which will hopefully do its bit for developing our young Academy talent.

Derbyshire‘s Karl Krikken has named the following squad for the game:

Billy Godleman, Chesney Hughes, Wayne Madsen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Wes Durston, Dan Redfern, Richard Johnson, David Wainwright, Jonathan Clare, Tim Groenewald, Mark Turner, Mark Footitt and Alasdair Evans.

My guess is that Ally Evans will miss out, but be there for the experience, while the final choice will be between Mark Turner and Footitt. Turner was bowling well before his injury and for me, Footitt deserves a crack for his sterling effort against New Zealand.

Sussex travel with a strong-looking squad that lines up as follows:

Anyon, Brown (wkt) JS Gatting, Hamilton-Brown, Jordan, Joyce (capt), Liddle, Magoffin, Miller, Nash,Panesar, Wells, Yardy

For me, the weather looks set to take too much from this game for a positive result, unless the respective sides play very well and poorly.

I’ll go for the draw, but I hope we’re the team that plays well. There will be a little pressure on Billy Godleman, with Ben Slater scoring well in the seconds and in the league, while Richard Johnson will have to justify his elevation to the wicket keeping role ahead of Tom Poynton. The latter has kept well but not made the runs that are required at this stage, though his time will undoubtedly come again.

In closing tonight, I read with interest that the Falconettes are recruiting for the coming summer. Having (just about) given up on my dream of playing for the county, that could just be the next best thing…

See you all tomorrow.