Durham Match Thread 2026

[captaincolly]

Might not be a bad idea to give him a rest. We have options so there's definitely an opportunity.
Personally I wouldn't but that's probably because I'm not too bothered about the Blast given how predictably bad ot usually is!

[Durhamfootman]

there was an improvement last year, though. It only ended in a disastrous QF because we hadn't played it for weeks and it followed immediately after a shockingly awful one day cup campaign

It will be interesting to see how we do this year, because we have some big hitting at the top, a couple of decent slow bowlers plus the IBR to slow the scoring down and all we have to worry about is how the quicker bowlers go. What does seem certain is that Bedders and Olivier will be our OS players, so I have no idea how that will shake out

last year we played Rhodes, didn't bowl him and only brought him in to bat with a handful of balls left in the innings and it felt like we were wasting him. Maybe he'll have a bigger role to play after his stellar one day cup campaign.... one of the few bright spots in that debacle. Kasey Jones might be steaming and a rolling for us, although I personally think he'll go for a few, Pottsy could go either way... great one match, woeful the next, and we'll just have to wait and see which Robbo turns up.

Hard to believe that this is just a week and a half away

[Durhamfootman]

Neesham was a big success last year. I don't think I remembered that he played in nearly every match. 21 wickets, 230 runs, 6 catches, not wildly expensive

in fact, a quick check tells me that between them the IBR and MP had an average econ of 8. The same average econ of 8 for Parky and Sowter. We only bowled 8 overs all campaign of players who got thumped (Ackers and Yusuf), so the only expensive bowlers we had were Neesham 9.4 and Aldridge 10.7

We must have learnt a lot from our Bas/Glover days of 15 to 18 an over..... and yes we scored quite a lot of runs last year, but it was the much more controlled bowling which took us to a home QF

again a quick check.... as a rough guide, we had 6 batters scoring between 250 and 400 competition runs at average around 30, so average 180 a game. 5 bowlers with econ around 8, so 160 a game. At the most basic level it's just maths working for us instead of against us. For years most of our bowers were shipping around 10 an over and we had to score over 200 just to win a game.... bleeding obvious, really

[captaincolly]

Yes, some promising signs last year so maybe my pessimism is misplaced! Hopefully we can build on last year and make further progress.

[Durhamfootman]

don't hold your breath though

[captaincolly]

don't hold your breath though

Yes!

[Durhamfootman]

match squad for tomorrow

Kasey Aldridge, David Bedingham, Graham Clark, Emilio Gay, Alex Lees*, Ben McKinney, James Minto, Duanne Olivier, Callum Parkinson, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Will Rhodes, Ollie Robinson+, Ben Stokes.

[Durhamfootman]

If we assume

Lees
McK
Gay
Bedders
Clark
Stokes
Robbo

then someone is going to miss out in the bowling ranks, because Aldridge, Raine, Potts, Olivier, Parky doesn't fit

[Durhamfootman]

They might rest the IBR, but he is our leading wicket taker by a country mile, so I wouldn't be terribly comfortable with resting him. We'd be relying on a pre-seasoning Stokes, a perhaps rusty OS player, a slightly erratic all rounder and a player still trying to rebuild his form after a traumatic winter, replacing his 6 or 7 match wickets. Nor would I leave out the spinner.

[captaincolly]

Potts back but Raine is playing. Matt Parkinson in the Kent team who won the toss and are batting.

[Durhamfootman]

well, they chose the option that I least expected. I assumed the point of bringing in Olivier early was to play him

[Durhamfootman]

Good start from Kent. 115-1 at lunch

work for us to do

Northeast hasn't gone much past 4 for a while, but he has here, so his usual big score looks on the cards

[Durhamfootman]

Seemingly Beckenham is a batting paradise. I'd forgotten that this match isn't at St Lawrence

In other news, Old George is getting some match practice on loan to Worcs for this game v Lancs

the way they've collapsed after lunch, he might be batting very soon

[Durhamfootman]

crumbs, it's getting worse.

179-1

might be just as well that rain is likely to be a feature of this game

[Durhamfootman]

and bloody Muyeye hasn't batted yet