Jon Lewis: Derby is about more than just local bragging rights
It was a big game down there for us and it will be again this evening, even though we can't qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition.
Tonight's game is very important for local bragging rights and also important for our momentum ahead of a huge week of cricket for us.
We've got a big Championship game with Kent in Beckenham coming up, then we go to Hove to play Sussex in the semi-finals of the Friends Provident Trophy.
We had a good Twenty20 win at Northampton on Tuesday, so hopefully we can beat Somerset tonight and Glamorgan on Sunday to give us good momentum going into those games.
There were five changes to the team which played against Warwickshire on Monday for the game at Northampton and that keeps everyone on their toes.
I think the management saw this as the ideal time to utilise the squad and to have people jostling for places in the team.
Some players, myself included, have had a lot of cricket this year and it was good to get the Northampton game off. That said, you don't want other players having too many opportunities to take your place in the team and it's important that I do the business against Somerset tonight.
It's been obvious to me this year that we possess a lot more strength in depth. Whenever someone has come into the side from the ranks, they've done well.
Full credit to them for doing so and to the coaching staff for making sure those players are ready to take the opportunities when they arise. It keeps the pressure on those in the team to perform consistently well and to keep our standards high.
Unfortunately, the Twenty20 is the one competition so far this season that we've not done too well in. We've not scored as many runs as we would have liked and there were two games, against Worcestershire away and Northants at home, when we should have successfully chased down the total.
If we had won those two games, we would probably still be right in the mix for a quarter-final place. But the margins between winning and losing are so small in Twenty20 and the momentum of a game can swing very quickly.
You have to grasp those moments because, if you don't, you won't win as many matches as you would have liked. That's pretty much what's happened to us this season and why we're not one of the best Twenty20 sides at the moment.
The County Championship game against Kent, which starts in Beckenham on Tuesday, will offer us a good marker of where we are at with our four-day cricket.
We beat Middlesex in our last game and, although they are a strong side, they were a couple of bowlers short of full-strength and we dominated with the ball.
Kent are another strong side and I've no doubt they will be in the hunt for promotion this season. But we're top of the table after six games and are full of confidence as a result. We've had four good games on the trot, having won three of them and had the better of the rain-ruined draw with Derbyshire.
We feel ready to take on anyone and have good options available to us. For instance, we might want to field two spinners at Beckenham or go with four seamers, and we know we are equipped to do well with whatever team is selected. Everybody has been making contributions this season, whether it be with fielding, batting or bowling, and there is a lot of trust in each other to do a job.
With the bowling, for example, we are not over-reliant on anyone to take lots of wickets. Each bowler is just concentrating on taking the next wicket rather than looking too far ahead. As for the batting, we've been getting enough runs on the board to keep the pressure on the opposition.
Another win at Beckenham would obviously be great. But, if we don't get the win, it's important we come out of the game with a good haul of bonus points. That means batting and bowling well in the first couple of days and getting into a position where you can dictate the play. That's something we've managed to do well this season.
Finally, a comment on the England squad which has been selected for the game with Warwickshire and for training ahead of the first Ashes Test.
The only surprise to me in the 17-man squad was the absence of Steve Harmison. He has taken a lot of wickets in the last two weeks and Australia fear him and the angle he bowls at. I would have him in the team if he is fit and firing, and that certainly seems to be the case at the moment.
I'm also surprised that, having been left out of the England squad, he has not been put in the Lions team at the expense of Tim Bresnan for the game with Australia at Worcester.
Bresnan might be a good Test player in the future, but he is probably a bit inexperienced to be playing in this year's Ashes series and it would have been a good opportunity to see how well Harmison is bowling.
There was also discussion as to whether Matt Prior should still be the Test wicketkeeper, ahead of James Foster. But the way the team is shaping up, you can't look beyond having Prior as the wicketkeeper.
Andrew Flintoff is not batting well enough to come in at number six for England, but Prior is a very fine batsman and quite capable of batting in that position. It might be a case of fingers crossed and let's hope he doesn't drop a vital chance behind the stumps. But he's done well for England in the past and you would have to back him to do so again.
With Prior at number six, England will have the opportunity to play five specialist bowlers. And the other good thing is that with Flintoff at seven, and maybe Stuart Broad at eight and Graeme Swann at nine, there will be a lot of depth to the England batting.
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