Durham Men will be looking to get their Vitality Blast campaign back on track when they host Lancashire Lightning tomorrow night [6:30pm] at Banks Homes Riverside.
Ryan Campbell has named a 14-player squad for round six of the Vitality Blast with Matthew Potts returning to the fold having missed Saturday night’s game against Northamptonshire Steelbacks having been on England Lions duty.
Ben McKinney has dropped out of the 14 having returned to the England Lions squad for their final ODI against South Africa A which takes place at New Road on Tuesday morning at 11am, while James Minto is also not included as the left-arm quick features for the second team at South Northumberland this week against Kent – with his workload being managed.
Campbell’s side sit fifth in the North Group with 8 points while Lancashire are one place below Durham with 4 points having secured one win from their opening five games.
Words from Alex Lees
At the halfway point against Northamptonshire we thought we would chase 145 down but it wasn’t to be. I think Dave (Willey) said, it was quite a challenging surface. We’ve had a couple now that we’ve probably not known what we were going to get.
We are bitterly disappointed. There were regular wickets, and some old-school T20 cricket was probably needed and not the crash, bang, wallop that we’re used to now. I think had a more experienced player got a run-a-ball 50, it might have been enough.
It’s obviously a big ground here, and you have to try and skin it a different way. But we just didn’t have enough at the back end.
We know the games come around quickly in this tournament and we will be back at home against a strong Lancashire side looking to put things right on Tuesday.
Squad v Lancashire Lightning (9 June)
Colin Ackermann, Kasey Aldridge, David Bedingham, Graham Clark, Shafiqullah Ghafari, Alex Lees*, Haydon Mustard, Callum Parkinson, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Will Rhodes, 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 Durham’s YouTube channel. Durham Cricket will have full coverage on social media, with a full match report at the close.