See you thought I’d forgot again didn’t you? In this crazy age of playing the 50 over cup in batches, I thought I’d delay the Dynamos weekly post mortem until after our third game which took place on Wednesday. More on that later. Incredibly, we’ve found a form of the game we excel at even less than the 4 day game. 50 overs cricket does not look like it is for Durham on these early showings but it’s early days. I nearly convinced myself with that…
Sign Of The Times
Last Friday we got our campaign under way against Yorkshire. Once a rival, now just a big brother who bullies us. It was at the Riverside in front of the Sky cameras, so Beefy never misses an opportunity. To begin the events a new name for the South West Terrace was unveiled to be ‘The Paul Collingwood Pavillion’. A nice touch for a man who has put up with twenty three years of this.
The team carried a few changes from the last County Championship game. Mark Wood’s away with England so Matty Potts was back in for him. Spinner George Harding replaced loanee Dixon. Tom Latham returned as skipper replacing Markram. And finally Ryan Pringle came in for Cameron Steel. As is customary, Yorkshire batted first putting on 80 for the first wicket; a sign of things to come. Although Potts removed Adam Lyth, other opener Tom Kohler-Cadmore was freed from the shackles to rack up 164 from 148 balls. What’s the point?
He eventually departed to Harding with the score 246, and with 8 overs to go the prediction was pain. 328-4 was a brutal score, with young Potts taking 3-69 from 8 overs. Whilst Colly showed he still has that limited overs knack by going for just 40 from his 10. Sadly, only Michael Richardson managed more than 40 with the bat as we posted such great scores as 22-2 and 96-5. Some late resistance from Potts and Poynter saw the Ds crawl to 186 all out; a mighty 142 run defeat which is as bad as it gets. Or is it?
A Good Game For The Roses
To Old Trafford for more 50 over fun on Sunday and after a heavy defeat by one of the Roses, how do you react against the other? Answer – let them score twice as many for the first wicket (and then some) as it took 28 overs breakthrough. That was former Durham man Keaton Jennings who got 73, but his opening partner Alex Davies went on to get 147. A brief recovery saw Lancashire “collapse” from 226-1 to 238-5 but some late hitting from Jordan Clark boosted the score to 314-7. Could Durham get close?
Absolutely not. An unchanged side was 32-4 inside 10 overs and the writing was very much on the wall. Captain Latham’s top score of 26 shows just how bad this was, with all five Lancashire bowlers taking 2 wickets each. Nice and neat on a scorecard but a disaster for Durham. This was our second highest defeat in List A cricket, something needed to change against Derbyshire.
Another One Bites The Dust
The squad was at least rotated to try and change our fortunes, with Colly rested along with Potts & Weighell. That meant Graham Clark was promoted to open alongside Cameron Steel, with Dixon and the beautiful sight of a returning Chris Rushworth also coming into the side. In another change, Durham batted first and even managed a 50 partnership for the opening wicket before Steel was run out. Clark and Richardson both holed out in the 40s whilst captain Latham added 66. A late contribution of 30 from Pringle took Durham to 272-8, which is competitive at least which at this point is all I ask.
The Derbyshire innings was threatening to go the same way as the previous two matches as they strolled to 163-1 after 33 overs. But as the impressive Rimmington (3-36) removed Godleman for 60, things started to turn in Durham’s favour. Maden and Critchley were also claimed by the Australian to reduce Derby to 169/4 and once George Harding bowled the dangerous Reece for 92, Derbyshire were 192/5 with 10 overs left to score 80. Such is the Durham way, the new partnership of Wilson and Hughes put on 80 for the 6th wicket to take the scores level, so even when Rushworth removed Wilson it was all over a ball later. Alex Hughes’ 42 off 27 was pivotal and this defeat will hurt more than the previous two in many ways.
At least some positives can be drawn from the final game. A few batsmen got double figures, which is a plus in this day and age, but there’s no way to dress up 3 defeats from 3 as being anything other than terrible. It’s Northants away on Friday…they beat Lancashire on Wednesday so obviously not a bad side. Something to look forward to. Rushworth being fit again though is a huge plus, whilst Latham is looking like an astute signing with the bat. Hopefully his best days are still to come. Mind you, I’m hoping that for most of this team.
