Nevill set to keep Test place, Cummins strikes

DERBY, England: Australia wicket-keeper Peter Nevill was set to retain his Test place after being chosen ahead of Brad Haddin behind the stumps for the tour match with Derbyshire at the County Ground on Friday.
Nevill took seven catches on his international debut and made a quick 45 in his only innings as Australia thrashed England by 405 runs in the second Test at Lord’s last week to level the five-match Ashes series at 1-1.
First-choice gloveman Brad Haddin didn’t play at Lord’s after withdrawing for “family reasons”.
Australia played both keepers against Derbyshire in their last match before the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston starts on Wednesday.
But it was Nevill, Haddin’s deputy at New South Wales, who kept on Friday, with Haddin in the outfield.
Nevill and Australia’s back-up bowlers only had one session in which to impress on Friday’s second day as rain meant there was no play after lunch.
That was time enough for New South Wales paceman Pat Cummins to mark his first bowling stint in first-class cricket after nearly two years out with a wicket during a six-over spell costing 20 runs.
Derbyshire were 81 for two in reply to Australia’s first innings 413 for nine declared — a deficit of 332 runs — when the umpires abandoned play for the day at 3:00pm local time (1400 GMT).
Wayne Madsen, the Derbyshire captain, was 14 not out and Scott Elstone 13 not out.
The 22-year-old Cummins was called up late into the squad after Ryan Harris’s injury-induced retirement on the eve of Australia’s 169-run first Test defeat in Cardiff.
Cummins had been sidelined from first-class cricket with back and foot problems since playing for Australia A against South Africa A in July and August 2013.
He tooks seven wickets in his lone Test against South Africa at Johannesburg in 2011, looked lively on Friday.