Blast Insight: Durham (2021)

Durham will arrive at Edgbaston on Saturday (2.30pm) for the second half of a quickfire West Midlands double-header after facing Worcestershire Rapids on Friday.

It will be a revenge mission for the Bears after they were beaten by 22 runs at the Riverside last Sunday. That was a rare defeat to the northern county in T20 - the two sides have met 11 times in the format over the years and the Bears have won eight of those games.

This time round, both sides have made strong starts to the North Group campaign before suffering blips this week. The Bears' defeat to Derbyshire Falcons last night arrived 24 hours after Durham suffered a shock nine-wicket beating by struggling Northamptonshire Steelbacks.

Durham have named a 13-man squad for the games against the Rapids and Bears. It includes England all-rounder Ben Stokes and Scotland fast bowler Ally Evans, who joined on loan last Sunday.

Seventeen year-old academy graduate Harry Crawshaw is named in a senior Durham squad for the first time, having impressed with the Seconds and scored 549 runs this summer for Hartlepool in the North Yorkshire/South Durham League.

Durham Cricket Lead High Performance Coach James Franklin ssaid: “We certainly weren’t at the races against Northamptonshire. We got a competitive total in the end after a slow start but were blown out of the water in the powerplay.

"It was very much a below-par performance from us from how we’ve been playing. We’ve been playing some good T20 cricket, but sometimes you have these games. The games come thick and fast so we have the chance to get back to winning ways.”