Pre-Match Pack: Worcestershire (A)

Derbyshire Falcons have named a travelling party of 13 players for the LV= County Championship fixture against Worcestershire at New Road, starting tomorrow at 11am. 

Fast bowler Conor McKerr joins on loan from Surrey, as cover for seamer Suranga Lakmal (concussion), Sam Conners (calf)  and Zak Chappell (Achilles), while batter Matt Lamb is also absent with a back issue.

Leus du Plooy and Haider Ali scored centuries in Derbyshire’s last red ball outing against Yorkshire at Chesterfield, and both will be aiming to replicate those knocks at New Road, while facing the Kookaburra ball, which is being trialled in the next two round of the LV= County Championship.

Derbyshire Squad:

12. Haider Ali
10. Luis Reece
04. Harry Came
77. Wayne Madsen
76. Leus du Plooy (c)
29. Brooke Guest (wk)
65. Anuj Dal
15. Alex Thomson
26. Nick Potts
Conor McKerr
11. Ben Aitchison
9. George Scrimshaw
99. Zaman Khan

The Opposition

Worcestershire are fourth in the LV= County Championship Division Two, with two wins and three draws from their seven games so far. 

Seamer Joe Leach is the division’s leading wicket-taker, with 32 dismissals at an average of 25.96, while Matthew Waite and Ben Gibbon have 35 between them.

Jake Libby and Azhar Ali have each scored two centuries this campaign, combining for little under 1,000 runs, and they will hope their efforts with the bat can aid the new signing of Indian pacer Navdeep Saini, who has joined for the next four red ball games.

Pre-Match Talk

Brooke Guest says Derbyshire will be doing all they can to turn their red ball form around, when they face Worcestershire at New Road.

Guest has been ever-present in the LV= County Championship this season, but Derbyshire have struggled in the red ball arena, losing three times.

As the squad prepares to trial the Kookaburra ball in this round of fixtures, Guest says it will not come as a surprise to Derbyshire’s players, and they will be aiming to use that experience, and confidence from big wins over Yorkshire and Birmingham Bears, to earn a first red ball win of the campaign.

“We haven’t played to our ability in the Championship so far, but this is as good an opportunity as any to turn it around,” he said.

“We have to put Friday behind us and move forward pretty quickly, we’ve had a couple of good results recently and we’ve outplayed some good sides, so we know we can beat anyone, but we have to make sure that come ball one at 11am on Sunday, we’re ready to go and play our best cricket.

“I’ve been quite lucky, with playing in Australia over the winter, that I’ve played against the red Kookaburra ball a lot, and I think a lot of the lads have experience with it, so we have got some knowledge. It will test us in different ways, it’ll be interesting to see how it goes in these conditions.”

How to follow

Derbyshire Falcons’ Vitality Blast fixtures against Worcestershire 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!

Updates will also be provides via our social media channels, so make sure you’re following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, so you never miss a moment of the action.