Vikings aim to keep up pressure at the top

“It’s another big week for us this week,” said head coach Andrew Gale.

“We have another home game against Durham, who things aren’t going that well for, and then we have got two away games which will be tough.”

And Gale will be looking to former England international Tim Bresnan to smarten up his captaincy of the side.

The coach felt Bresnan could have given a bigger helping hand to 21-year-old spinner, who was hammered for 47 runs in two overs in the win against Worcestershire.

“I blame poor captaincy for that. He (Bresnan) shouldn’t have bowled Carver at that part of the game,” said Gale.

“I felt for Karl, he has got a good record in T20 cricket and he will bounce back.”

David Willey made a matchwinning 118 for the Vikings and earned praise from his coach.

“Dave’s been brilliant. If I could have eleven Dave Willeys in my dressing room, I would because he’s up and at you,” said Gale.

“He wanted to open the batting in this format and made his feelings known about that.

“We felt three was his best spot. There’s been no complaints from him, he’s got his head down and is making match-winning contributions. He only knows one way, and that’s what we encourage him to do.”

Durham all-rounder Adam Hickey will have surgery to repair the fracture of his right collarbone suffered trying to take a catch in Sunday’s T20 Blast defeat by Lancashire Lightning.

The 20-year-old had to leave the field during the Lancashire innings and was sent to hospital for an X-ray.

Hickey made his first-class debut for Durham last season and has played four T20 games in 2017.