Pre-Match Pack: Notts Outlaws (H)

Derbyshire Falcons have named a 15-player squad for tomorrow’s East Midlands Derby with Notts Outlaws at The Incora County Ground, starting at 6.30pm.

The Falcons completed a Club-record T20 run chase against Birmingham Bears on Wednesday, smashing through the target of 204 with three balls to spare, after captain Leus du Plooy struck the second-fastest T20 half-century in Club history.

Luis Reece and Haider Ali put on 95 for the first wicket at Edgbaston and they will be hoping to show strong resistance against their local rivals on Friday night.

Mattie McKiernan claimed the wickets of Glenn Maxwell, Moeen Ali and Alex Davies against Birmingham Bears, with the spinner aiming to take that momentum back to The Incora County Ground.

Derbyshire Squad:

12. Haider Ali
10. Luis Reece
24. Tom Wood
04. Harry Came
77. Wayne Madsen
76. Leus du Plooy (c)
29. Brooke Guest (wk)
65. Anuj Dal
21. Mattie McKiernan
15. Alex Thomson
32. Zak Chappell
51. Mark Watt
09. George Scrimshaw
99. Zaman Khan
11. Ben Aitchison

The Opposition

Notts Outlaws have claimed four wins from their opening seven games, with fixtures against Durham (tonight) and Derbyshire Falcons (Friday) to come this week.

With 254 runs, Joe Clarke is Notts’ leading run-scorer, including two half-centuries, while Shaheen Afridi has picked up ten wickets so far.

Pre-Match Talk

Luis Reece says the Falcons will be taking the confidence of three wins in their last four matches into the East Midlands Derby against Notts Outlaws on Friday night. 

The all-rounder scored a half-centrury, much of which was made during a 95-run opening partnership with Haider Ali on Wednesday night, before Leus du Plooy’s destructive innings of 66 from just 25 balls saw the Falcons home.

Now, the squad is preparing for a huge game against Notts Outlaws on Friday night, but Reece says the Falcons will be confident after recent performances.

“It’s nice that we’ve done the double over Birmingham Bears, with the squad they have it’s a great achievement, and I think our lads are starting to find the rhythm of the game.

“We were probably a little bit slow at the start of the tournament, but we’re starting to find a formula that works, we’ve won three of the last four games and hopefully we’re finding that confidence going into the business end of the tournament.

“We owe Notts a big performance, we’ve come close a few times but it’s good that we’re going toe-to-toe with the big sides and if we can make it two from two going into the red ball game next week, all of a sudden things look fairly decent.”

How to follow

Derbyshire Falcons’ Vitality Blast fixtures against Birmingham Bears will be covered live on the Club website, through our improved Match Centre, delivered in partnership with Purpose Media.

Our Match Centre includes live streaming, in-play live scorecards, ball by ball commentary and statistics, everything you need to stay up-to-date, no matter where you’re following from!

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