Friday 28th June 2013
By Paul Fisher

Derbyshire's T20 campaign gets underway at Headingley, Leeds tonight, in what could be described as one of the toughest opening matches they could have.

Yorkshire Vikings, who reached the Final last season before losing narrowly to Hampshire, will have an eye on reaching at least finals day again.

The Vikings have an almost full squad to choose from, with only Steven Patterson ruled out injured. They can welcome back Jonny Bairstow who has been recalled from the England side, also Jack Brooks will make a welcome return from injury. New signing in the summer Liam Plunkett is also included in the squad as well as former Falcon, Gary Ballance.

Derbyshire Falcons can include Albie Morkel in the squad for tonight's fixture; however Alex Hughes is unavailable due to a side injury.



Wes Durston (above) has an opportunity to become the leading run scorer for Derbyshire in T20 history as he just requires three more runs to overhaul Greg Smith's record of 930.

Derbyshire can include Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the side, he and Morkel played at Queen's Park in a friendly match versus a Chesterfield Invitational XI on Wednesday night.

Derbyshire coach Karl Krikken said, "We will go into the games with renewed vigour; hopefully we'll have a bit more luck than in the T20 than in the championship to date."

Krikken was quick to point out that maybe it was good to get away from the Championship at the moment, "We're starting to play decent cricket, we'd like to keep going in the league, but we go to Yorkshire with new energy and some fresh faces in the side.

"We're getting better at the T20's - our experience is bit more, we have Chanderpaul and Morkle now. I have my side in mind, it won't be too different to the Yorkshire Bank 40 side, with the extra overseas player."

Derbyshire's match at Headingley tonight (5.40pm start) is the first of two games over the weekend, the Falcons travel to Grace Road, Leicester tomorrow (2.40pm start).

Follow Paul Fisher on Twitter - @pkfsport

Article sponsored by Autoworld Chesterfield

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