Voting is now open for the Gray Nicolls Champagne Moment of the Year for 2017 with four equally strong nominations in the running!
Despite a disappointing season on the pitch, there have been moments of individual & team success & we have picked out four of the best.
Watch the video on each nominee, read a bit about each & vote using the form below!
Voting closes on the evening of Thursday, 5 October, shortly before the award is presented at the Player of the Year awards.
Cameron Steel
The 22-year-old will never forget bringing up his maiden first-class hundred. On 94 at the time & with Northants struggling for wickets, they turned to left-arm spinner Chesney Hughes in search of a breakthrough.
His first ball was a loosener & Steel whacked it over the leg-side & into the crowd over cow corner, sparking a hop, skip & punch of the air from the batsman.
Steel added a double century against Leicestershire later in the season, the youngest man to get there in Durham’s history, & finished with 899 Specsavers County Championship runs in an impressive first season.
Paul Collingwood
Durham’s first-class captain enjoyed a season to remember at the age of 41 & added the incredible achievement of scoring the Jets’ first T20 century at Worcestershire.
July’s innings at New Road, totalling 108 unbeaten runs off just 60 balls, also made him the oldest T20 centurion in cricket’s history.
The destructive knock included 10x4s & 4x6s, the latest in a long list of achievements for the former England captain.
Usman Arshad
The Jets came looking for revenge at Emirates Riverside after a NatWest T20 Blast defeat at Yorkshire Vikings earlier in the competition & Arshad held his nerve to deliver victory by the narrowest of margins.
Our visitors required ten from the final over & despite starting with a wide, the all-rounder took things down to the final ball. With two required, Arshad’s slower delivery foxed Azeem Rafiq & ensured a one-run win over our closest rivals, igniting perhaps the biggest roar of the season from the Jets faithful.
Graham Onions
Another who added to a long list of achievements, Onions trapped Adam Milne LBW to chalk up number ‘519’ & become the club’s highest first-class wicket-taker in history.
The celebrations said it all & emotions were high as the veteran bowler was applauded by all inside the ground on his way off.
Onions finishes his time at Durham with 527 wickets, a record anyone will do very well to beat in the future
Vote for your favourite moment below!