Saturday 24 May 2008

Derbyshire v Yorkshire preview

Another big game and a win will see us with one foot in the quarter finals.

Yorkshire are the only side to beat us this season but we made a mess of our batting having bowled very well. They are also having a real problem with their overseas quickies, with Morne Morkel lasting one game before breaking down and now Rana Naved-ul-Hasan has damaged a hamstring on his debut and looks likely to miss several weeks. With Mattthew Hoggard and Ajmal Shahzad already on the crocks list, tomorrow's visitors have their problems.

They have a good strong batting line-up, however and are apparently set to field the side that beat Yorkshire at Edinburgh last week after a few early alarms. If so, they would take the field as:

Gale
White
McGrath
Rudolph
Brophy
Rashid
Bresnan
Pyrah
Wainwright
Gough
Kruis

Time was when I'd look at this sort of side and be worried, but while they are a fair side I am confident that we have enough to have them equally wary. We don't know the situation with James Pipe's injury but Fred Klokker is proving a very able deputy and I'd expect the following side to take the field tomorrow.

Stubbings
Rogers
Sadler
Clarke
Birch
Klokker
Wagg
Claire
Lungley
Needham
Langeveldt

My only concern is that if a bowler has an off day we don't have a sixth, even seventh option at present. Once Greg Smith is fit, Wavell Hinds arrives and the skipper's thumb fracture is better we'll be fine, but we either shorten the batting for the extra bowler or go with what we have. Another option might be Dan Redfern in the middle order to give us an off-spin option, but he's not played much recently with A level commitments so it would be a gamble.

Here's hoping that the weather is fine and we get a good day at them. Come on boys!

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