Durham host Leicestershire Foxes this afternoon in their penultimate home fixture in the Vitality Blast and will be looking for their fourth win of the campaign.
A loss against Yorkshire Vikings on Friday night has left Durham 8th in the North Group and with 5 games left in the competition Durham will need to get on a roll if they are to qualify for the quarter finals.
Leicestershire Foxes were on the winning side last time out when they beat Worcestershire Rapids, with the Midlands side sitting 6th in the table, when they were victorious at the Upton Steel County Ground on Friday.
Brydon Carse remains unavailable due to England ODI selection in Holland for their 3-match series, while David Bedingham is out with a shoulder injury sustained against Worcestershire in the County Championship.
Squad v Leicestershire Foxes
Scott Borthwick, Jonathan Bushnell, Graham Clark, Paul Coughlin, George Drissell, Ned Eckersley, Michael Jones, Stanley Mcalindon, Ben Raine, Ollie Robinson +, Nathan Sowter, Liam Trevaskis, Ashton Turner*, Andrew Tye.
Words from Ashton Turner
Durham’s Ashton Turner said: “Winning is more fun than losing, but from a personal point of view you don’t appreciate how quickly the rug can be taken from under you and how finite our time can be playing this game, so I’m thankful to be out playing. There was a time when I thought my tournament was over, so I’m appreciative of the support staff to help me get back on the field, but we didn’t play very well tonight. I don’t think the bowling plan was the problem, Adam Lyth just played beautifully, and we didn’t quite execute our plans as well as we would have liked. Par was about 165 on that wicket, so to get up to 200 was a good effort by them and it was obviously too many for us to chase down. We’ll be better for the experience, but we have to learn quickly in this competition. We’ve got two days to dust ourselves off and come better prepared against Leicestershire on Sunday.”
Leicestershire Foxes
Pedigree: Leicester have the richest history of all counties in the competition having been held the crown on three occasions. However, when taken into consideration that their last victory came in 2011 and they have only made it to the quarter finals twice since.
Dangerman: Naveen Ul-Haq should be seen as a major threat in this season’s Vitality Blast campaign. The Afghanistan international bowler is on the back of a very successful 2021 season which saw him pick up 26 wickets at an average of 17.57 as well as having impressed on the Sri Lankan T20 league over the winter.
Rising Star: Rehan Ahmed is a player with a bright future ahead of him despite his limited experience with Leicestershire. Ahmed showed character with some spectacular performances over the winter with England Under 19s consistently picking up wickets in their youth ODI fixtures. At just 17 Ahmed has plenty of time ahead of him but may be able to seize on an opportunity this summer.
Last Visit: Leicester’s last visit to Chester le Street was a very frustrating one for the home side as Durham’s early promising form continued to fall away with the weather playing a part in this encounter. Durham were put into bat and struggled early doors at 25 for three from the opening four overs with Bedingham, Stokes and Bancroft all falling cheaply with both of the latter falling to Ul-Haq (2-14). Clark’s (40) exit at 70 for four left Durham in a precarious position just after halfway, although Dickson (35*) and Eckersley led the recovery to 115 for 4, the Durham innings was halted due to rain after 15.1 overs. DLS set the Leicester target at 88 from 9 overs and powerful hitting from Inglis (35*) and Ackermann (36*) helped achieve the target with four balls to spare as the Durham bowling attack struggled to contain them with only Stokes picking up a wicket.
Match Coverage
The Club’s match centre will be in operation for the fixture with live scorecards, & statistics, however there will no be live stream for today’s fixture due to the game being live on Sky Sports. You can listen to ball by ball commentary on the BBC Sport website and BBC Radio Newcastle.
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.