Lead High Performance Coach, James Franklin has named a 13-man squad for Durham’s Vitality Blast fixture against Lancashire Lightning, tomorrow night, live in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
The game which gets underway at 7pm, is Durham’s 200th T20 and is the start of a busy period of T20 cricket with Durham playing Lancashire Lightning, Yorkshire Vikings and Birmingham Bears over the next four days.
Durham go into Thursday’s game on the back of a high scoring contest against Notts Outlaws, with Durham falling just 13 runs short of 196 set by Nottinghamshire at Emirates Riverside and now drop down to fifth in the North group with 4 points from 3 games.
Lancashire sit in second place, with 3 wins and 1 loss from their 4 games having done the double over Derbyshire Falcons and defeated Leicestershire Foxes by 16 runs at Old Trafford.
Sean Dickson returns from paternity leave and is included in the Durham squad for tomorrow’s game, with Stuart Poynter and Jack Campbell being omitted from Tuesday night’s squad.
Squad vs Lancashire Lightning (17 June)
Cameron Bancroft*, David Bedingham, Scott Borthwick, Jack Burnham, Brydon Carse, Graham Clark, Paul Coughlin, Sean Dickson, Ned Eckersley, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Matt Salisbury, Liam Trevaskis
Words from David Bedingham
The Opposition
Coach: Glen Chapple
Captain: Dane Vilas
Last year’s performance: Semi-finalists
2020 Leading Runscorer: Alex Davies (299 @ 29.9)
2020 Leading Wicket Taker: Matthew Parkinson (15 @ 20.66)
Overseas players: Dane Vilas (South Africa – whole tournament), Finn Allen (New Zealand – whole group stage)
Key man: Matthew Parkinson – England leg-spinner with 75 wickets in the last four Blast campaigns combined. Lightning’s leading wicket taker in each of those. Loves bowling at difficult times, including at the death.
Flies under the radar: Alex Davies – England players Livingstone, Mahmood and Parkinson get the headlines, but the diminutive wicketkeeper batsman (opener) is a star performer. Lightning’s leading runscorer for last three years, including 534 in 2018.
Best player under 24: Finn Allen – Explosive batsman, 22, who made T20 debut for New Zealand in March. Tall opener similar to Tom Banton. Could break up longstanding opening partnership between Alex Davies and Liam Livingstone.
Blast expectations: Lancashire are desperate to add to the solitary title they won in 2015 under the guidance of current England director of cricket Ashley Giles. Beaten semi-finalists in 2018 and 2020, they were beaten in the quarters by 2019 champions Essex at Emirates Riverside. They have all the tools at their disposal. Power and nous with the bat, plenty of pace and spin with the ball. Especially strong on home turf at Emirates Old Trafford, where they push the boundaries out to suit their spinners. With the bat, they have more than enough power to clear those boundaries. It would be a big surprise if they didn’t reach the quarter-finals. Then it is just about being better in those pressure moments which come in knockout games. Only current champions Nottinghamshire have won more matches (119) than Lancashire (118) since the start of the Vitality Blast in 2003.
Match Centre
The fixture against Lancashire Lightning will be broadcast live on Sky Sports and therefore this game won’t be streamed via the clubs youtube channel. There will also be regular updates on Twitter, with a match report and post-match reaction on the website following the match.
Tickets
Tickets can be bought from Gate 2 on match day priced at £20 for adults and £5 for a child. Tickets can be bought from the box office until 3pm on match day, by calling 0191 387 1717 or by visiting Emirates Riverside.