Durham have been in excellent form on our pre-season tour of Zimbabwe.
The team are currently playing a mix of three-day games and T20’s, alongside warm weather training.
If you missed the action a summary of the games is detailed below:
T20 against Harare Sports Club:
Brilliant batting led by Alex Lees swept Durham to an easy nine-wicket victory over Northerners in the second T20 at Harare Sports Club on Wednesday afternoon.
Northerns on winning the toss decided to bat, but lost Wessly Madhevere off the third ball of the innings to Brydon Carse, with only a wide on the board.
Liam Trevaskis took three wickets in quick succession in the middle order and six wickets were down for 81 before Mumba began to hit.
The innings ended in the 17th over for 124, Trevaskis finishing with three for 19 in three overs.
Fifty from Lees backed by 30s from Jones and Bedingham saw Durham home in ease in just 11.3 overs.
In the second T20, a brilliant opening partnership of 140 in 10.3 overs between the Durham openers, Alex Lees and Graham Clark, virtually decided their T20 match against Southerns at Harare Sports Club on Thursday morning, which they went on to win by 129 runs.
Right from the start, after deciding to bat, they attacked the bowling in full measure posting 246/5 from 20 overs.
Durham controlled from the off with the ball as Brandon Glover 2/9, George Drissell 2/27, Matthew Potts 1/7 were the pick of the bowlers as Durham dismissed the home side for 117.
3-day game against Southerns:
Durham thumped Southerns by an innings and 145 runs on day two of their three-day match at Harare Sports Club on Sunday.
A brilliant century by Alex Lees was the highlight of the day after Southerns had been tumbled out for only 94 runs in their first innings of this three-day match.
Potts took three wickets for 17 runs and Raine four wickets for 21, both needing only six overs to wreak their havoc.
Then it was the Southerns bowlers’ turn to suffer, as Durham opened their innings with Lees and Michael Jones, and they immediately put the attack to the sword.
Durham continued their innings in the morning on 339 for six. De Leede went on to make 46 not out and the innings was declared closed at 403 for eight wickets.
Paul Coughlin took three wickets for 25, while Matthew Potts and Liam Trevaskis claimed two each as Durham completed an overwhelming victory by an innings and 145 runs.
Durham won their last T20 game by 4 wickets, with a final score of 131/6 chasing down 127.
The day started with the Northerns winning the toss, choosing to bat first.
Scott Borthwick was excellent with both bat and ball taking 5 wickets for just 16 runs and hitting three 4’s and one 6 for a top score of 27.
Durham take the series 3-0
When the team return to Chester-Le-Street they will bring the season to a start with a friendly three day game against Durham University on the 27,28,29 of March. This game is free to attend so if you would like to see the team playing pre-season at home, feel free to pop along.