Durham head coach Jon Lewis knows his side have to learn from their mistakes as they prepare to face Northamptonshire in the second Specsavers County Championship match of 2018.
A 12-man squad travelled to Wantage Road this morning ahead of the fixture against a Northants side that has lost their first two fixtures of 2018.
Lewis’ side are also looking for their first win after losing to Kent inside two days at Emirates Riverside after successive top-order collapses left the side in disarray.
Durham’s pre-season was heavily disrupted with all-but one day of play scrapped due to the wet weather around the country & Lewis accepts while his side need to learn quickly & be more resilient over the next four days, panic buttons will not be forced into action.
“[The message was] we need to learn from these things & accept the criticism when it comes because there were elements of the performance which was poor, but we also don’t need to overreact,” Lewis said.
“It was the individual batter against bowler contest, particularly against Matt Henry, that we didn’t win & that was the difference. We did some things okay but it’s no good highlighting the good things if we got it that badly wrong to start with.
“It was good bowling in good bowling conditions, but we should’ve been more resilient & rode out the tough periods. Their seam attack was never under any pressure because of the damage Henry had done in the first six or seven overs in each innings. By the time we got round to having a go at them, we were six or seven down.
“Nobody becomes a poor player overnight just in the same way nobody becomes a good player overnight, it takes time. We’ve had a bad weekend but it was match one of a long season, there’s no need for us to overreact at this stage.”
Despite being under the cosh following a first innings total of just 91, the bowlers responded to bowl the visitors out for 169.
They were left with too much to do in the second innings but Lewis was pleased with the way his bowlers responded to changing conditions.
“I thought the way we bowled in their first innings was very encouraging. The pitch changed a lot between 11 o’clock in the morning & 2:30 in the afternoon. We bowled differently to the way they did & I thought we bowled the way we needed to, on that surface, at that time, & it was good we adapted so quickly,” he said.
“We were sharp in the field, which was good because we hadn’t been able to do much fielding going into the game due to the dampness of every bit of grass in the North East.
“To keep ourselves within the game after the first innings was a good effort, unfortunately we didn’t follow on from that. The bowling effort was good & Nathan Rimmington deserves particular credit for his first time out.”
Northants dropped to an opening defeat against Middlesex at Lord’s before losing by an innings to Warwickshire last week.
Despite their poor start, Lewis is wary of familiar threats from a number of players who remain from the side that beat Durham in the NatWest T20 Blast final back in 2016.
“They’re a pretty established team & have been for a couple of years. Apart from [Doug] Bracewell coming into their side & no Rory Kleinveldt any more, it’s a side we’ve seen a lot of & the faces will not be unfamiliar to us.
“They’ve managed to remain fairly stable & added Brett Hutton, which is a very good signing for them, Richard Gleeson has had a rise over the last 12 months. They have good players we’ll certainly have respect for, but they’re players we’re mostly familiar with.
“At this stage in the season, a good week makes a difference to the feeling – not that everyone is too down at the moment, no one is particularly pleased but a good performance will lift the group as a whole & put us into a decent position.”