Durham Match Thread 2026

[captaincolly]

Is Olivier trying to bowl Derbyshire back into this?

[captaincolly]

0-35 in four overs out of a score of 78/4!

[captaincolly]

According to The Times Stokes is considering playing next week. If he does maybe it won't be Aldridge who is rested.
2 wickets in 9 balls.

[Durhamfootman]

Well, that was an entertaining couple of hours.

Very well bowled by Kasey Jones. Looked like plenty in the pitch, so it shows how well we batted. Blustery wind too

[Durhamfootman]

Are you here Capt?

[captaincolly]

Are you here Capt?

Yes. Going well so far.
Women won again, they're in fine form.

[Durhamfootman]

they are indeed. They're beating the teams they can beat and looking solidly mid table in the one day cup. As a group we're coming together quite nicely. Wickets for Fraser today in the WC too

I didn't see you. I was sitting in the blue seats at the lumley end. It seemed to be the part of the ground most sheltered from the wind. Started getting too cold for me at 5.30. I see Madsen decided against walking down the wicket in his second dig. I actually gasped when he charged IBR second ball in the first. It was only a matter of time before he got out. It seemed extraordinary given the match situation

We put Jewell down on 0 in the first innings, regulation 3rd slip chance. As he got into his stride, I feared the worst, but fortunately only made 37. He was given out quite generously, I thought, lbw, but then we'd had much better looking shouts at the other end all innings and got nothing for our trouble. Again in the second innings Reece was given and I wasn't sure, but he'd been rapped on the pads a few times and if you do that eventually the umpire is going to stop giving you the benefit of the doubt.

[Durhamfootman]

I don't know if you noticed, but the old scoreboard had the two teams playing as England and West Indies. I wondered if we had a Women's WC fixture, but we don't and England play the WI at Lords

I also couldn't find the current over rate anywhere on either scoreboard and I'm sure it used to be on one of them. The reason I looked was because there were still 28 overs to bowl at nearly 5pm, so I figured it must be slow.

Pitch had quite a green tint to it, I thought, and a fair few of Kasey Jones' deliveries kept a touch low. Made me worry about the pitch rating a bit, despite us posting 377 first up

He bowled really nicely today did Aldridge. Best I think I've seen from him. He gave nothing away, no four ball shots every over, or anything like that. Potts and Raine bowled far too straight at Harry Came in the second innings. I didn't see him play anything into the offside. If it wasn't on his legs, he either left or blocked and we didn't put anything like enough pressure on him in our opening spell. There was a touch of fortune about Pottsy's 3 wickets. Reece could easily not have been given, Montgomery chased a ball going down leg and only managed to help it into the gloves of Robbo diving wide to his left. Jewell chopped on, as Madsen did in the first

We bowled much better as a unit in the first innings (ignoring Lawrence). Only KA looked good in the second while I was there

[Durhamfootman]

According to The Times Stokes is considering playing next week. If he does maybe it won't be Aldridge who is rested.
2 wickets in 9 balls.

not after today.

seemingly Stokesy was there today bowling in the middle before play started and then netting. Feels likely to me

[captaincolly]

Yes, Aldridge superb to prevent the customary annoying late wicket partnerships. Always seems harder getting wickets in the follow on - was the right decision although I'm not a fan of enforcing it unless time is an issue, but I'm overly cautious!
Good to get Madsen right at the end and it could be over quickly if we strike early in the morning.

[Durhamfootman]

I did wonder if we were considering batting again, but the pitch was keeping low a bit, it was bloody windy and getting cold. The lights were on and there were a lot of overs left in the day, so I figured we could just as easily lose 5 wickets ourselves in these conditions, get bowled out by lunch tomorrow for not that many and find that the conditions for batting were improving all the time

Besides, we only really bowled for one session in their first innings, so I was happy enough to see us enforce the follow on.... hit them again while the conditions were still poor for batting

Don't get me wrong, I still think that if we did bat again we'd still win the game, even without that many runs in the second innings. Another 150/200 runs would still have seen Derbys needing 400/450 in 5 sessions and I'd have backed us to nibble them out...... although how many times last season did we only take 3 or 4 last innings wickets on the final day? This way we have a chance to bowl them out by lunch tomorrow and get some extra R n R in

[Durhamfootman]

If Stokes does play in the next match, would we leave Lawrence Olivier out?

Now there's a man who could use a couple of wickets tomorrow

Having watched his first spell, I'm heartily grateful that we didn't play him in the T20.

I did wonder if we'd bring him back on when Derbys were 8 down, only at the Finchale end, but we brought IBR back. Fair enough he took one of the last two wickets straightaway, but I thought the chance to bowl in tandem with KA at a couple of tail enders might have helped ease the new boy into the side. He spent a lot of time on his own at deep fine leg this afternoon

[Durhamfootman]

The women have won 3 straight one day games, of course. I didn't realise that until this morning

it means they have won 7 of their last 8 matches played, and they weren't a million miles away from beating the mighty Surrey at the Oval in the one they lost

I find this hugely encouraging

[captaincolly]

If Stokes plays I'd leave Olivier out. Not sure they will though! Looks very rusty and all over the place.

[Durhamfootman]

better performance from him today though. No wickets but only 3 boundaries from 11 overs. He was giving 2 away every over in the first innings

I think Pottsy might be making a point to the England captain/former England captain (delete as appropriate). I noted the stubborn 5th wicket stand at lunch today, so it was pleasing to see an innings win by tea. 8-66 from 25 overs is an outstanding return. Good to see Parky holding up one end and then breaking the partnership that then allowed Pottsy to run through them.

Credit to Harry Came for his unbeaten ton. He really applied himself yesterday to make sure he was still there at the end, only playing the shots he was most comfortable playing and leaving every other shot in the locker. If some of his more experienced team mates had applied themselves the same way, Derbys might have made a better fist of things

Durham march on. Northants next.... see you Friday