Durham will be looking to make it back-to-back wins when they take on Northamptonshire Steelbacks at Wantage Road tonight at 6:30pm in their second Vitality Blast game of the summer.
James Franklin’s side got their campaign off to a winning start last night under the lights of the Uptonsteel County Ground with a 54-run win over Leicestershire Foxes and will be hoping for more of the same this evening.
An unchanged squad of 14 has been named to head down the M1 for tonight’s game at Wantage Road.
The Steelbacks who were also in action last night lost their opening game by 125 runs to Birmingham Bears. Batting first Birmingham posted 207/3 from 16 overs thanks to 119 off 51 from Paul Stirling. In reply Northamptonshire were bowled out for just 81 from 14.2 overs.
Squad v Northamptonshire Steelbacks (27 May)
David Bedingham, Scott Borthwick, Jonathan Bushnell, Brydon Carse, Graham Clark, Paul Coughlin, Ned Eckersley, Oliver Gibson, Michael Jones, Stanley Mcalindon, Ben Raine, Ollie Robinson +, Liam Trevaskis, Ashton Turner *
Words from Paul Coughlin
“It is always nice to get a win on the board and get up and running like that. To win by fifty-odd runs, we have to be happy with that as a start to the campaign. It looks comfortable, but it is important we keep that going.“We came off pretty happy at the halfway stage, we thought it would be a competitive score. Pretty much everyone contributed, which makes the win that much better.“The partnership I had with Carsey worked well. We say that if you’re not getting boundaries at least try to keep the scoreboard moving with ones and twos and to have someone like Carsey at the other end is always handy.“With the ball, it was nice to get an opportunity like that to take wickets with the ball swinging.“It was a great start for the new skipper, too. He is very experienced. You could see from the sidelines, the decisions he made and the time he made those decisions, he did a great job tonight.“We’re straight back into action again tomorrow night and if we can build on tonight and get on a roll in the early part of the competition that would be good.”
Northamptonshire Steelbacks
PEDIGREE: Northampton experienced a very successful period in the competition between 2013-2016, reaching 3 finals in 4 consecutive years. With two T20 blast trophies in their cabinet already, they will be looking to build on a disappointing 2021 season.
DANGERMAN: The hard-hitting batsman Chris Lynn brings an incredible wealth of T20 experience, playing 230 matches around the globe and is set to feature in the Vitality Blast for the first time this summer. Boasting an eye-watering record in T20 cricket, Lynn has scored more than 6,000 runs at an average above 30 and with an incredible strike rate of 140. With forty T20 half centuries and two centuries under his belt the Steelbacks have a real danger man in Chris Lynn.
RISING STAR: Left-arm wrist spinner Freddie Heldreich had a breakthrough year with Northamptonshire in 2021, taking eight wickets in his debut season and will be looking for more of the same this summer. Born in Ipswich in 2001, Heldreich is a young cricketer breaking through the ranks at Northamptonshire, particularly in white ball cricket. Freddie made huge strides forward in 2021, leading to his T20 debut for the Steelbacks.
LAST VISIT: Sean Dickson scored his maiden T20 Durham fifty, but Durham suffered a 9 wicket defeat. Adam Rossington and Ricardo Vasconcelos broke the Steelbacks’ highest opening stand to chase down Durham’s total of 158 with ease. Vasconcelos notched his highest T20 score of 78 to drive his side over the line, ending their winless run in the competition at the seventh time of asking.
Match Coverage
The Club’s match centre will be in operation for the fixture with live scorecards, statistics & video highlights as they happen. You can watch the game live via the Durham match centre and Northamptonshire YouTube channel.
There will also be regular updates on Twitter, with a match report and post-match reaction on the website following the conclusion of the game.