Durham will be looking to get back to winning ways in the Vitality Blast when they travel to Emirates Old Trafford to face Lancashire Lightning at 2:30pm tomorrow.
A 14 player squad has been named to travel to Manchester, with includes 2 changes to the squad named to face Derbyshire.
Luke Robinson returns to the squad while Ben McKinney is included in Durham’s T20 squad for the first time this season.
Paul Coughlin suffered an injury on Friday night against the Falcons and drops out of the squad, while Bas de Leede has now joined up with the Netherlands team for the World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe.
Graham Clark drops out of the squad as the opener suffers with an illness, which kept him off the field on day 4 against Glamorgan and saw him miss the game against Derbyshire Falcons last time out.
Brydon Carse made his return from injury with a T20 career best of 58 against Derbyshire Falcons last night having batted at three.
Nathan Sowter with 18 wickets is the second leading Blast wicket taker this term as he is 2 behind Somerset’s Ben Green who has 20 poles.
With four wins and one tie so far in the North group this summer Durham sit in 5 place with 9 points, 1 point behind Lancashire Lightning who are one place above them in 4th.
Campbell’s men beat Lancashire Lightning in the return fixture at Seat Unique Riverside and will be hoping to repeat the double when they face an international studded line up tomorrow.
Words from Brydon Carse
“Over the last couple of weeks I’ve made good progress to be available for selection. I’m still a couple of weeks away from being able to bowl, but I’m happy to be back playing and putting in a good performance. It wasn’t the plan for me to come in at three, it changed in the fourth over. Ryan Campbell said to me go in and be aggressive and take them on and it paid off. It’s nice to come back in and score runs straightaway. I’ve been hitting the ball well in the nets so it was nice to feel good at the crease again. We thought we had enough runs on the board and felt that we could defend the total. But, looking at how the game played out we left 10 to 15 runs out there. T20 is a game of small margins. We clawed it back and were able to take it to the end, but ultimately we didn’t quite get over the line. At the end, it felt almost like a loss because we got so close.”
Squad v Lancashire Lightning [18th June]
Jonathan Bushnell, Brydon Carse, Luke Doneathy, Brandon Glover, Michael Jones, Alex Lees, Ben McKinney, Wayne Parnell, Ben Raine, Ollie Robinson +, Luke Robinson, Nathan Sowter, Liam Trevaskis, Ashton Turner
Opposition Corner
Captain: Keaton Jennings
Overseas players: Colin de Grandhomme (New Zealand), Daryl Mitchell (New Zealand), Dane Vilas (South Africa).
Finals Day appearances: 9 (2004, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2022)
Titles: 1 (2015)
2022 finish: Runners-up
2022 leading runscorer: Steven Croft (548)
2022 leading wicket taker: Richard Gleeson (25)
Key winter moves: New Zealand all-round pair Colin de Grandhomme and Daryl Mitchell will provide a mixture of experience, power and skill. They are two of three overseas players in the squad alongside the Red Rose’s South African stalwart Dane Vilas. The signing of 2021 World Cup finalist Mitchell is particularly exciting for Lightning fans.
The big question: Can this year be a case of the perfect 10 for Lancashire? They have reached a joint-record nine Finals Days with Hampshire, the team who beat them in last year’s final. It would be the perfect way to mark a 10th appearance at the Blast showpiece if they were to go on and win a second title this July.
Wildcard watch: Matthew Parkinson – Was a shock non-selection in March’s The Hundred draft. Released from the Manchester Originals squad last year and loaned out to Durham last month, all’s not lost for England’s fringe leg-spinner who is one of only two bowlers to have taken 100 T20 wickets for Lancashire (Stephen Parry the other) given Hundred teams have one more available spot to fill.
Final thought: Lancashire have an interesting conundrum in the early stages of the Blast. Captain Keaton Jennings (hamstring) is sidelined, and Vilas has deputised in the Championship. But it may be that New Zealanders De Grandhomme and Mitchell are the preferred Blast overseas pair. If so, another captain is needed. Steven Croft and Luke Wells spring to mind.
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 Lancashire YouTube channel. Durham Cricket will have full coverage on social media, with a full match report at the close.