Durham will need to bounce back if they are to remain in contention for the knockout stages of the Vitality Blast when they take on Notts Outlaws tonight at Seat Unique Riverside.
Campbell’s side suffered a heavy defeat to Yorkshire Vikings last night and dropped to fifth place in the North Groups, slipping out of the quarter final spots.
Despite last night’s defeat, Durham sit level on points with Derbyshire Falcons who are fourth and 1 point behind Northamptonshire Steelbacks in third.
An unchanged 14 player squad has been named for the Outlaws clash as round 12 of the Vitality Blast is upon us.
Despite sitting bottom of the North Group, Notts Outlaws have been a powerhouse of domestic T20 cricket over the last 20 years and on their day remain a dangerous side – they have picked up two wins this campaign and currently have six points.
Words from Ryan Campbell
Unfortunately, a couple of times this year when we haven’t played on great wickets, we haven’t adapted quickly enough and problem-solved quickly enough. Hence, we get ourselves in trouble.
We fought our way back at 96-5 with five overs to go. You think, ‘We could post something which we back ourselves to defend’. But their young leg-spinner came on and was absolutely brilliant. The rest was history.
We have to control our own destiny in this competition. We have to win our last three games. It’s as simple as that. If we do that, we’ll deserve to be in that top four.
We now have to bounce back, we have no choice, we can either accept mediocre and be sixth or seventh at the end of the tournament and go oh yeah poor us. We aren’t a bad T20 team, I know we are good team, I know it in my heart of hearts and I have no doubt over the next three games we will show that.
Squad v Notts Outlaws (12 July)
Opposition Corner
Captain: Joe Clarke
Overseas players: Dane Paterson (South Africa), Will Young (New Zealand), Ben Lister (New Zealand, 30 May – 21 June), Fazalhaq Farooqi (Afghanistan, 5-19 July)
Finals Day appearances: Six (2006, 2010, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020)
Titles: Two (2017, 2020)
2023 finish: Quarter-finals
2023 leading run-scorer: Joe Clarke (432)
2023 leading wicket-taker: Shaheen Shah Afridi (22)
Key winter moves: Leading 2023 wicket-takers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Jake Ball have gone, as have club legend Samit Patel and off-spinner Matt Carter. New Zealand’s Ben Lister and Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi fill the Afridi left-arm quick vacancy, while New Zealand batter Will Young and ex-Worcestershire duo Jack Haynes and Dillon Pennington are more new faces.
Wildcard watch: After two seasons on the main roster, wicketkeeper Tom Moores kept his Trent Rockets shirt via a wildcard last year after outscoring Alex Hales in the Blast, when only Clarke totalled more than his 371 runs. He will be looking to do the same again with another big showing.
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 YouTube channel. Durham Cricket will have full coverage on social media, with a full match report at the close.