Jon Lewis is confident that Durham will be able to rise to the occasion to qualify for Vitality Blast Finals Day ahead of their quarter-final clash against Sussex Sharks at Emirates Riverside.
The Jets finished second in the North Group, winning nine of their 14 matches, to secure a home tie in their last-eight contest. The club reached Finals Day in 2016 and managed to battle their way past Yorkshire in the semi-finals before being defeated by Northamptonshire in the final due to an inspired performance from Josh Cobb.
Lewis has revealed that his side relished the experience and are determined to get back to the showcase at Edgbaston by beating the Sharks on Friday.
He said: “You try not to change the mentality. It is a big game and you don’t want to avoid the fact that it is a big game because the best players will want to play in big games. You need to recognise that, but you don’t want to do anything overly different.
“You want to keep everything the players do in their preparation as normal as it was before. We’ve got to enjoy the fact that it’s a big game, but we cannot change too much. On its own it’s pretty big without the history of the last year or so. We got to Finals Day in 2016, we really enjoyed that experience a lot.
“We played our best game against Yorkshire in the semis then we came up fractionally short in the final against a good Northamptonshire side. Although we didn’t win the competition, we did enjoy the game. It’s a big day in the English summer, T20 Finals Day is one of the big days of the domestic calendar. To be part of it was good and we’d like to be part of it again.”
Durham continued their winning form from the Blast in their Specsavers County Championship Division Two triumph over Glamorgan in Cardiff. Lewis’s men wrapped up their victory within three days, allowing the team further time to rest and prepare for the clash against the Sharks, which the coach feels will stand them in good stead.
He added: “I do think no matter what the form of the game, the dressing room winning is good. Some of that performance at Cardiff stemmed from the T20 performances over the last month. It was good to keep it going, it was a good performance no doubt about it.
“Getting it done early got us home early and gave us extra rest and a better practice day. The preparation was better, but the rest and not the late night travel will be a real asset for us. The guys are in a good place and they’re using their T20 practice well at the moment.”
A bumper crowd is expected at Emirates Riverside on Friday and Lewis is hopeful that his side can match the enthusiasm of the supporters with a flawless performance on the pitch.
“We’ve had good crowds in the tournament, we’ve had our best year for crowds,” he added. “T20 has benefited across the country from having some decent weather. We’ve definitely been on the right side of that. We’re hopeful of having a big crowd on Friday and we can put on a good show in front of them and get the right result.
“I don’t think handling the emotion of the occasion will be too tough, there’s an element of that to the group stage games. We’ve done pretty well so far in doing that. I’d back the guys to be in good shape.”