Trent trip’s Nott one Durham want to lose
DURHAM head to Trent Bridge tonight for their penultimate Vitality T20 Blast fixture to take on Notts Outlaws (6.30).
Ashton Turner’s men go into the game knowing they cannot qualify for the 20-over competition’s quarter-final stages, which are scheduled for next week.
They lie second from bottom in the North Group wth seven points, having registered just three wins in their 12 games to date.
However, they will hope to restore some pride against the team just above them in the table before rounding off their disappointing Blast campaign at Derbyshire Falcons on Sunday (2.30).
Head coach James Franklin has named a 13-man party to face an an Outlaws side Durham only played last Friday night at Seat Unique Riverside - losing by two runs in a rainaffected affair.
There are two changes to the squad chosen for that game, all-rounder Jonathan Bushnell and spinner George Drissell the men dropping out.
All-rounder Brydon Carse hopes Duhram can improve on recent disappointing batting displays and bounce back to form against the Midlanders.
He also wants revenge for last Friday’s narrow defeat.
Carse said: “It is always interesting when games are shortened by the weather, different dynamics come into it.
“It ended up being an entertaining match last Friday and we managed to get 11 overs per side.
“The conditions out there were tricky because it was wet.
“Unfortunately we came out on the wrong side of the result.
“As a group we thought we bowled quite well, we took wickets in the powerplay and never allowed them to get away from us.
“We thought we were in the game so it was very disappointing we didn’t get over the line.
“We kept on losing wickets at crucial times and that has been a common theme for us in the Vitality Blast. Our batting has let us down through the middle.”
The Outlaws were crowned T20 winners in 2020 and went close again in 2021 before falling short against Hampshire Hawks in the quarter-finas.
A team packed with all-round top -quality white-all players, they will again be a stiff test for the Riversiders.
Dangerman Alex Hales is a redhot limited-overs cricketer and on a good day a top player to watch.
He scored an unbeaten 96 at the Riverside last summer off just 54 ball and was Notts’ leading run scorer in the Vitality Blast for the second season running with 482 runs at 43.81.
DURHAM SQUAD: Scott Borthwick, Brydon Carse, Graham Clark, Paul Coughlin, Ned Eckersley, Michael Jones, Stanley Mcalindon, Ben Raine, Ollie Robinson, Nathan Sowter, Liam Trevaskis, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye.