By Niall Hickman
For Group A table of Royal London One-Day Cup, go to http://www.sportinglife.com/cricket/tables/1564/english-domestic-royal-london-one-day-cup-2015-group-a
For Group B table of Royal London One-Day Cup go to http://www.sportinglife.com/cricket/tables/1568/english-domestic-royal-london-one-day-cup-2015-group-b
Durham coach Jon Lewis hopes it is a lucky omen as his side qualified for the Royal London One-Day Cup knock-out stages with an identical record to last season – when they went on to win the trophy at Lord’s in September.
Durham qualified with nine points from Group A following victories in their last two matches, which was exactly the same scenario last season on their way to their Lord’s success.
Lewis told www.durhamccc.co.uk “We had to pull it out the bag, so to speak, with wins over Leicestershire and Derbyshire and we just about got through. We qualified last year with nine points and by winning our last two group matches, so let’s hope it is a correlation which continues this season.
“We have been a bit patchy in the 50-over game this season but I felt we bowled really well against Derbyshire on Monday, when we had to. That was probably our best bowling performance in the cup this season as we had a decent total to defend, bit not a massive one. All the bowlers chipped in with good displays and we restricted Derbyshire in a very professional way. I was pleased with the bowling side of things, although the batting was again a bit hit and miss. Chris Rushworth and Gordon Muchall did a fantastic job to get us to 247.”
Durham qualified for the last eight following the abandonment of the Yorkshire v Northamptonshire game at Headingley, with Lewis’ side pipping Northants to fourth place on net run rate (NRR).
Lewis and his Durham team don’t know who they will face next week in the last eight, although having finished fourth in Group A it looks almost certain they will travel to Group B leaders Nottinghamshire, unless Essex can pull off a huge win at Sussex in their final group game and Notts lose at home to Hampshire.
Lewis said: “Whoever we face it will be a tough tie. We have been to Nottinghamshire a few times lately and we managed to beat them in the semi-final at our place last season. If it is Notts or Essex it will be a real test for the team, but one we are relishing. We are really just very glad to have got over the line and got into the quarter-finals and we know that in one-off games anything can happen.
“We know we will be travelling whoever it is, but we have probably played better away from home in the RL Cup this season than we have at home. We batted fantastically at Somerset and Northants. We bowled and fielded really well against Derbyshire. Now we have to try and put it all together in the knock-out stages.”
Lewis was full of praise for his bowling attack following the win over Derbyshire, in particular Graham Onions, who played his first one-day match for the county in a year.
He said: “Graham was right on the mark, really excellent and we got stuck into their batting line-up straight away with him and Rushworth. They were backed up by some high class seam bowling by John Hastings and Paul Collingwood. Colly bowled ten overs straight through for less than four an over which was tough on his body but was a brilliant effort for the team.
“I’m pleased with Scott Borthwick as well as he bowled well and got quite a bit of turn. All in all I was delighted and I felt we just kept putting Derbyshire under enough pressure so that eventually we got our rewards. Wayne Madsen batted excellently and with him there they always had a chance, but we bowled particularly well to him and eventually Hasto got him. It was a very good team performance, well led by Mark Stoneman.”
The date for next week’s Durham quarter-final clash at either Nottinghamshire or Essex will be set later this week.