Lead High Performance coach James Franklin has named an unchanged squad of 14 as Durham head to Trent Bridge to face Notts Outlaws in their final Vitality Blast game of 2021, this afternoon at 4pm.
Durham’s 6 run defeat to Lancashire Lightning on Friday night at Emirates Old Trafford meant Durham are no longer able to reach the top four and quality for the Quarter Final Stages.
Notts also lost on Friday night away to Leicestershire Foxes, but the Outlaws have already secured a top two finish and will be guaranteed a home quarter final come August.
Durham will be looking to close their 2021 campaign with a win on Sunday as their T20 season comes to a close.
Squad vs Notts Outlaws (18 July)
Graham Clark, Brydon Carse, Alex Lees, Ned Eckersley, David Bedingham, Sean Dickson, Liam Trevaskis, Paul van Meekeren, Luke Doneathy, Harry Crawshaw, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Cameron Bancroft*, Scott Borthwick
Words from David Bedingham
“The wicket was really good against Lancashire, we said that the first 12 overs of our innings would be very important because we felt the last eight overs of theirs was tough to strike it. We had a game plan of trying to whack it in the first 10 or so, and it came off. Unfortunately, we just missed out by six runs. It was disappointing. We’ve been in three or four nail-biting games, and we’ve lost all of them. That’s how it goes. Hopefully next year we can win those.”
“I think we owe it to ourself and our fans to play well one last game, so hopefully we can beat a very strong Notts side and finish on a high for us and our fans. There hasn’t been excuses for the bad end to this competition, we have had injuries and things at times just haven’t gone our way. We have lost a lot of closes ones, which we probably should have won, but that is how T20 goes sometimes.”
The Opposition
Coach: Peter Moores
Captain: Steven Mullaney
Last Year’s Performance: Champions
2020 Leading Runscorer: Joe Clarke (371 @ 37.10)
2020 Leading Wicket Taker: Jake Ball (19 @ 13.63)
Overseas players: Dane Paterson (South Africa – whole tournament)
Key man: Alex Hales – Had a sub-par Blast in 2020 yet bounced back as top scorer in the Big Bash and with 8,066 runs is the highest scoring Englishman in T20 history.
Flies under the radar: Steven Mullaney – Seldom makes headlines but scores quickly and has a knack of chipping in with vital wickets with his medium pace wobblers and will captain the team in the group stage following Dan Christian’s Australia call.
Best Player Under 24: Lyndon James – Yet to appear in the Blast but is expected to get his chance after impressing with bat and ball in red ball cricket this season.
Blast expectations: Semi-finalists three times in the last four seasons and winners twice, the defending champions are among the favourites again, although they must manage without left-arm spinner Imad Wasim from their title-winning team because of the clash with the rearranged Pakistan Super League, while 2020 leading wicket-taker Jake Ball has not played any cricket since April 9 because of a back injury. Nonetheless, with a top order comprising Alex Hales, Ben Duckett and Joe Clarke and big hitters such as Tom Moores in the middle, Nottinghamshire should score heavily again, while Wasim’s absence will an opportunity for veteran all-rounder Samit Patel to show he can still make an impact in his 19th T20 campaign, having made 191 appearances since the competition began in 2003, more than any other player. Anything less than another trip to Finals Day will be seen as a disappointment.
Match Centre
The Club’s match centre will be in operation for the fixtures with live scorecards, statistics & video highlights as they happen. You can watch the game live via the Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club YouTube channel.