Durham honour players at the clubs End of Season Virtual Awards

Alex Lees and Matthew Potts took the Player of the Year awards for red and white ball cricket as the Durham Cricket 2020 End of Season Awards were hosted virtually for the first time.

Rounding the season off as the clubs leading run scorer in red ball cricket, Alex Lees was named the 2020 Bob Willis Trophy Player of the season after a summer which Lees amassed 386 runs at an average of almost 50.

His batting in the Bob Willis Trophy saw him strike three fifties and one century against his former club Yorkshire, which came in the opening round of fixtures in August.

Lees continued his form from the 2019 season into 2020, where he led the way for Durham with 499 runs, closing 2019 season as the leading run scorer.

The Moment of the season in red ball cricket went to Chris Rushworth, after he claimed his 500th first-class wicket for Durham taking seven in the process against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge – a haul which saw him become only the third bowler to reach 500 first class wickets for Durham.

Haseeb Hameed was Rushworth’s 500^th victim as Paul Coughlin safely caught the Nottinghamshire opener in the slips, joining Simon Brown and Graham Onions as the only other bowlers to hit that milestone for the county.

Claiming seven wickets in the innings, Chris claimed his 26^th five-wicket haul of his career, as he struck with figures of 7/108 from 26 overs.

Career best figures are special moments in any cricketer’s career but for Matthew Potts he claimed three in six days, as his white ball exploits saw him named Durham’s T20 Blast player of the season.

The right arm quick was Durham’s joint leading wicket taker in the Blast, taking 13 wickets in 10 matches, at an average of 18.07.

He played a key role in Durham’s late season revival, taking three consecutive career best hauls over Leicestershire, Yorkshire and Lancashire.

His second over against Lancashire Lightning saw him rip through their top order to put Durham in complete control. Second ball he had Steven Croft caught for nought, fourth ball he trapped Dane Villas LBW for zero, before removing Rob Jones off stump for a duck. Claiming career best match figures of 3/8 from 3 overs.

He was named man of the match against Yorkshire at Headingley where he picked up figures of 3/14 from 3, dismissing Adam Lyth and Harry Brook as well as bowling the world’s number one T20 batsman Dawid Malan for a golden duck.

A destructive innings from Ben Raine against Derbyshire earned him the 2020 Blast Moment of the season as he starred with Alex Lees in a 123-run partnership at Emirates Riverside.

Raine smashed eight sixes to power Durham to their first win of the 2020 season, defeating Derbyshire Falcons by 55 in which he scored 71 from only 39 balls, equalling John Hastings’ record for most sixes in a T20 innings for Durham.

Raine took time to build into his innings, but he exploded into life after dispatching his first six of the game over mid-wicket. The left-hander then pulled Michael Cohen over the rope from the following over to find his rhythm.

Raine brought up his second T20 half-century with his first four of the game through cow corner, reaching the milestone from only 29 balls.

He then equalled a Durham record by clearing the rope for the eighth time – matching Hastings’ knock from 2014 against Northamptonshire.

With almost 70% of the vote, Alex Lees was named the 2020 Durham Cricket Members Player of the Season after the left-hander had a superb season with the bat.

Lees, performed consistently throughout the season in both formats for Durham, rounding off the season as the leading run scorer for the club in the Bob Willis Trophy and Vitality Blast.

His consistent performances opening the batting caught the eye of the Durham Cricket members, making their decision easy in naming Lees as their Player of the Season for 2020.

You can watch interviews in full with the players below.