By Niall Hickman
Durham squad vs Leicestershire – Stoneman(cpt), Mustard, Collingwood, Muchall, Pringle, Borthwick, Clark, Harrison, MacLeod, Rushworth, Hastings, Arshad, Jennings.
Durham coach Jon Lewis is “cautiously optimistic” that Paul Collingwood can return to the fray for their crucial Royal London One-Day Cup clash with Leicestershire.
The former England all-rounder missed the 71-run defeat to Gloucestershire on Tuesday with a back spasm, a loss which means Durham must win their last two group games to have a realistic chance of qualifying for the knock-out stages of a competition they won last September at Lord’s.
Collingwood had to watch from the sidelines at Bristol as a blistering century partnership by Michael Klinger and Geraint Jones steered Gloucestershire to success, with Durham falling 71 runs short of their victory target.
Lewis said: “I suppose the best way of putting it is we are cautiously optimistic that Colly can return for the game at Leicester. He had a back spasm so we left him out at Bristol as a precaution, but I’d say it is about 50-50 for Leicester.”
Lewis believes victories in their last two Group A fixtures, against Leicestershire at Grace Road and Derbyshire on Monday week at the Emirates Durham ICG, will be enough to send Durham into the last eight.
He said: “We qualified last year in a similar manner, with nine points, so back-to-back wins in our next two cup games with give us nine and we have to hope it will be enough. We won the trophy last year and we clearly want to win it again.”
Lewis admitted his side were second best at Bristol, with Klinger hitting an unbeaten century as Gloucestershire posted a big total – one that was beyond the Durham side.
Lewis said: “Gloucestershire pretty much outplayed us in all departments. I wouldn’t say we are out of it in terms of reaching the quarter-finals but we are going to have to play a lot better than in our last three games.
“We hadn’t played at Bristol for a long time and I don’t think we handled the conditions well enough with either bat or ball. Michael Klinger was the difference, as he has been for Gloucestershire on many occasions this season.”
Gloucestershire five-wicket hero David Payne said: “It was just about the perfect one-day team performance for our point of view. As a First Division club in the Championship, we paid Durham a lot of respect and put a lot of preparation into the game.
“I am the first to accept that my performances have been inconsistent this season, which was something I was looking to improve on, so it was good to make a real contribution. We are well placed, but no-one is taking qualification from the group for granted.”
John Hastings top-scored in Durham’s reply with 46 from just 41 balls but it was too little, too late as they sought an unlikely 286 for victory, falling well short of the required target.
Last Match – Durham beat Leicestershire by 38 runs in the NatWest T20 Blast on July 3. The two sides also met earlier this year, in May, at Grace Road, where Leicestershire ran out victors by eight wickets.