"It’s crucial not to leave it too late," says Paul Nixon as Leicestershire plan T20 Blast charge

Last Friday’s rain-off at home to Northants, together with results elsewhere, have seen the Foxes slip back to seventh in the North Group, albeit still only one point off fourth, the final qualifying position for the quarter-finals

It may not mathematically be a ‘must-win’ game, but head coach Paul Nixon believes it is crucial for Leicestershire to pick up maximum points from their Vitality Blast T20 match trip to Derbyshire at the Pattonair County Ground on Thursday.

Last Friday’s rain-off at home to Northants, together with results elsewhere, have seen the Foxes slip back to seventh in the North Group, albeit still only one point off fourth, the final qualifying position for the quarter-finals.

But with only five games to play, including matches against the top two teams in the table, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, Thursday's match against the Falcons takes on even greater significance.

“It’s crucial not to leave it too late,” said Nixon, after completing preparations for the match at the ECB’s high performance centre at Loughborough University.

“The weather forecast for Thursday is hopeful and it looks as though the game will go ahead. Derbyshire had a good win over Worcestershire on Tuesday, so they will take confidence from that, but we have been playing well ourselves, and if we execute our skills we can definitely come away with the points.”

The Foxes face two away games in as many days, travelling to Wantage Road to play Northamptonshire on Friday, but Nixon says for the time being they are thinking only about Derbyshire.

“Three wins from five might be enough, who knows, but for us it’s all about the right here and right now. There’s no point getting too far ahead of ourselves, we have to stay in the moment and keep our thinking clear.”

Nixon accepted the point taken from the game against Northants last Friday could be viewed as one gained, rather than one lost, given the Foxes mustered only 137 for nine from their 20 overs, and Northants were 16 without loss in their reply before the weather closed in.

“Northants bowled well to us, taking the pace off the ball during the early powerplay overs, and we’ve talked about how we have to learn from that, about the importance of being proactive and keeping the scoreboard moving,” he said.

Nixon confirmed his first signing for next season this week, batting all-rounder George Rhodes from Worcestershire.

“He’s a quality individual who has done well in white-ball cricket recently but had limited opportunities in red-ball cricket at Worcestershire and aged just 25 we believe hasn’t reached anything like his potential,” said Nixon.

Although Neil Dexter is close to regaining fitness, it may be too soon for the experienced South African all-rounder to come back into what is likely to be an unchanged squad for the games at Derby and Northampton.

Courtesy of the ECB reporters network

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