Durham will be aiming for back-to-back wins in the Vitality Blast when they travel to Edgbaston this afternoon to take on Birmingham Bears. [3:30pm]
Following last night’s 7 wicket win over Leicestershire Foxes at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Campbell’s side will be looking to make it two from two for the first time this season in the shorter format.
An unchanged squad of 14 has been named as Durham head from Leicestershire to Birmingham for their fourth game of the competition.
Having lost their opening two fixtures Durham’s win last night moved them off bottom in a tightly contested North group table.
Birmingham Bears fell to a 8 run defeat last night against Lancashire Lightning and sit 4th in the North group.
Words from Alex Lees
“We were pretty underwhelming in our first two games and hopefully we can use this first win to kick-start our campaign. It was nice for me to get some runs because after the opening two games I felt it was important for me to put in a performance.
“The key to getting over the line was keeping calm in the way we set about chasing the target. With wickets in the tent, we didn’t have to panic, we could keep taking singles to keep the scoreboard moving. Dave Bedingham played a lovely innings and that contribution from Ashton Turner was important too, as was Ollie’s in getting us over the line.
“With the ball, Nathan Sowter and Callum Parkinson are two high-quality white-ball bowlers. Nathan has had a good couple of years for us and Callum showed a lot of character to bowl that well coming back to his former club, which isn’t always easy. Their partnership through the middle, where they kept taking wickets and building pressure was invaluable.”
Squad v Birmingham Bears (8 June)
Colin Ackermann, David Bedingham, Jonathan Bushnell, Graham Clark, Paul Coughlin, Ben Dwarshuis, Alex Lees*, Haydon Mustard, Callum Parkinson, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Ollie Robinson+, Nathan Sowter, Ashton Turner
Opposition Corner
Captain: Alex Davies
Overseas players: Hasan Ali (Pakistan), Aamir Jamal (Pakistan)
Finals Day appearances: Four (2003, 2014, 2015, 2017)
Titles: One (2014)
2023 finish: Quarter-finals
2023 leading run-scorer: Sam Hain (481)
2023 leading wicket-taker: Dan Mousley (21)
Key winter moves: The Bears have fleshed out their bowling options with the signings of seamers George Garton and Richard Gleeson. Garton has signed a three-year T20 contract while 36-year-old Gleeson has signed just for this year.
The big question: Can the Bears overcome the knockout freeze that has seen them exit the tournament at the quarter-final stage in the past three seasons? In recent years they have played some scintillating T20 cricket during the group stage but choked when the format turned to all-or-nothing.
Wildcard watch: All-rounder Ed Barnard’s form in his first season and a half since arriving from Worcestershire has been hugely impressive, especially with the bat. He has the tools and the talent to radically improve on his forgettable first T20 campaign for the Bears last year.
Match Centre
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 Durham’s match centre and Warwickshire YouTube channel. Durham Cricket will have full coverage on social media, with a full match report at the close.