Durham Men are looking to round off their Vitality Blast group stage campaign tomorrow with three straight wins taking on Lancashire Lightning at Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground [3:30pm].
Ryan Campbell has named an unchanged 14-player squad for round 12 of the Vitality Blast as Durham head to Manchester.
Campbell’s side sit fourth in the North group with 20 points, trailing third-placed Lancashire Lightning by two points ahead of the final round of the group stage games tomorrow.
Durham are looking to keep their chances of knockout qualification alive, with the two best third-placed sides proceeding to the quarter-final stage.
Words from Ryan Campbell
It was an exciting game against Derbyshire. It’s always good to finish the season at home in front of a pretty big crowd with a win. An exciting finish is always a good way to go, both teams had their moments.
I was so happy with the way we battled our way through. The partnership between Ackermann and Robinson, even though it wasn’t fours and sixes, sometimes in T20 you need that.
It keeps us alive, hope is one of those things, if you’ve still got a little bit of it, you keep one looking and searching. All we can do is go to Lancashire and put our best foot forward.
I thought our fielding was outstanding. To have athletes like McKinney and Aldridge patrolling is a really good thing.
Squad v Lancashire Lightning (12 July)
Kasey Aldridge, Colin Ackermann, David Bedingham, Brydon Carse, Graham Clark, Shafiqullah Ghafari, Alex Lees, Ben McKinney, Callum Parkinson, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Luke Robinson, Ollie Robinson+, Nathan Sowter.
Opposition Corner
Captain: Keaton Jennings
Overseas players: Ben McDermott (Australia, all)
Finals Day appearances: 10 (2004, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2025)
Titles: One (2015)
2025 finish: Semi-finalists
2025 leading run-scorer: Keaton Jennings (459)
2025 leading wicket-taker: Luke Wood (22)
Key winter moves: It’s a case of, ‘If you can’t beat them, sign them’ with the capture of powerful Australian wicketkeeper-batter Ben McDermott – part of Hampshire’s team which beat Lancashire in the 2022 final.
The big question: Can the Lightning cope without Luke Wells (shoulder), Ajeet Singh Dale (hamstring) and Arav Shetty (finger), who have all had surgery and are long-term injury absentees? It stretched the squad during the first block of Championship matches. The loss of Wells would seem a particular blow given his capabilities with bat, ball and in the field.
Wildcard watch: Mitch Stanley. This isn’t the selection of an unknown quantity. After all, speedster Stanley, 25, is an England Lion. But he has yet to really prove himself in any format given his lack of cricket due to previous injuries and workload management. Since debuting four years ago in this format, he’s only played 18 matches. But what a talent. He could blow a few batting line-ups away.
Final thought: For all the Finals Day appearances, Lancashire just haven’t been able to get over the winning line. Only one title – in 2015, under new coach Steven Croft’s captaincy – is not enough. The availability of Messrs Buttler, Livingstone and Salt will be a key factor in their pursuit of title number two. Get the England trio for a bulk of matches from now until the start of July, before India arrive for limited overs internationals, and Lancashire could be motoring.
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 the Lancashire Cricket YouTube channel. Durham Cricket will have full coverage on social media, with a full match report at the close.