Pre-Match Pack: Durham (H)

Derbyshire have named a 14-player squad for the LV= County Championship fixture against Durham at The Incora County Ground, starting tomorrow at 11am. 

Fast bowler, Zak Chappell, returns to the red ball squad, while Mitch Wagstaff is also named after his match-winning century against Nottinghamshire in the Second XI Championship game last week.

Leus du Plooy and Brooke Guest each scored centuries in the thrilling draw with Sussex, with Wayne Madsen, Haider Ali and Alex Thomson all making crucial contributions with the bat. With the ball, both George Scrimshaw and Alex Thomson claimed their maiden five-wicket hauls for Derbyshire and all are named in the squad to face the league leaders.

Derbyshire Squad:

12. Haider Ali
10. Luis Reece
04. Harry Came
77. Wayne Madsen
76. Leus du Plooy (c)
29. Brooke Guest (wk)
24. Tom Wood
22. Mitch Wagstaff
65. Anuj Dal
15. Alex Thomson
32. Zak Chappell
26. Nick Potts
59. Sam Conners
09. George Scrimshaw

The Opposition

Durham are top of the LV= County Championship Division and look set to earn promotion to Division One, with five wins and just one defeat so far this season. 

They hold a 47-point advantage over second-placed Leicestershire, which is more than the gap between the Grace Road outfit and eighth-placed Derbyshire (45 points).

Ben Raine is the leading wicket-taker in Division Two, with 41 dismissals at an average of 24.39, while three Durham players (Alex Lees, David Bedingham and Ollie Robinson) have scored three centuries each this campaign.

Pre-Match Talk

Wicketkeeper-batter, Brooke Guest, believes momentum will be key in turning Derbyshire’s red ball season around, and hopes that can start with the game against Durham. 

Despite coming close against Leicestershire, Worcestershire and Sussex, Derbyshire are without a win in the LV= County Championship Division Two this season, but there has been plenty of positives to take from the last two fixtures.

A strong all-round performance at New Road last month was only thwarted by a strong Worcestershire rearguard on the final day, while Derbyshire had to settle for a draw just 19 runs shy of an unlikely fourth-innings chase at Hove last time out.

As the squad prepare for a return to first-class cricket at Derby for the first time since May, against the table-topping Durham, Guest says a positive result this week could give the team a boost heading into the final five four-day matches of the campaign, with everything still to play for in a tight league.

“Durham have a good team, but they’re human and there’s no one we can’t beat on our day,” he said.

“There’s no team that’s unbeatable, Durham have had a very good season but on our day we can beat anyone, if we put it all together and make sure we’re consistent, avoid the bad sessions we’ve had this year, then I think we can do that.

“Cricket is very much a game of momentum, as soon as we get that first win, we can get on a bit of a roll and anything can happen. There’s still six games to go, if we can win four of those, we’ll be there or there abouts.

“There’s still a hell of a lot to play for and even promotion isn’t out of the equation if we play to our potential, because the division is so tight, from second place.”

How to follow

Derbyshire’s LV= County Championship fixture against Durham 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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