Durham Match Thread 2026

[Durhamfootman]

Followed by a drop in the third. I do t know who has escaped because the scoreboard isn’t working…… of course

[Durhamfootman]

Finally

Hardest chance of the three

The dangerous Adams

[Durhamfootman]

And another. It seems we can only take the diving catches

[Durhamfootman]

Heather Graham, of course

I’d forgotten about her

[Durhamfootman]

4th wicket, just as Hants were starting to get going

[Durhamfootman]

Great win for the women and an easy win for the men

[Durhamfootman]

I went for the second half of the women and the first half of the men. I left at the men's interval because I have small people staying overnight, but I figured that we so completely dominated Leics in the first half that we were either heading for a comprehensive win or a catastrophic defeat.... and I don't do catastrophic defeats if I can help it

60 of Clarky's 62 runs came from fours and sixes, so I imagine we got another big PP score

Raine at 3 is not a brain fade from Leesy, but clearly a plan that is yet to work. Ackers and Robbo saw us home with plenty of overs remaining

Josh Hull...... remember him? 0-34 off 2 overs.... Bas de Leede territory.......forgettable numbers from him

[Durhamfootman]

The feature of the day for me (and I didn't watch us bat in either game) was how good our bowling and fielding was today

I spent half of last season bemoaning the women's fielding. With a massive missed stumping opportunity in the first over and a dropped dolly catch in the second, I thought I was going to be maoning again, but to be fair to them the fielding after that was pretty sharp all roound. We held good catches, nearly took a couple of worldies, cut out everything but the two most difficult boundary stops, which rolled over the rope. No hint of balls going through legs or any of that amateurish stuff from last year. They've clearly been working very hard on the fielding and it shows.

Trudy Johnson was terrific in the PP. 3 overs 0-16... only. Heather Graham went for a few in her first over, but then settled down later. Villiers and Levick had the ball on a string. It was all very well done. Hants never looked like they were going to get anywhere near their target, other than a brief flurry of boundaries when they were too far back anyway

[Durhamfootman]

The men dropped nothing.... nothing at all, and some of them were tough chances coming from high up with the sun behind them. We didn't remotely look like we were going to drop one at any point

Ben Raine was excellent. his first two overs went for 5 runs, two of which were leg byes off lbw appeals, and his first over in the PP went for 1 run (and one of the leg byes). When he came back at the death Leics just settled for nudging him into gaps and running like hell to get two runs.... some of those twos were bloody close calls.

Pottsy bowled a rotten first over, but when he came back he bowled really well

Aldridge also had a pretty poor first over, but also came back well later

Parky looked a lot more threatening than Sowter, but both bowled pretty tightly, Sowter's figures spoiled by Turner launching his last ball straight down the ground for a big six. However he executed a really good run out of the batsman backing up and took a steepling catch with the full sun behind it

All in all, Leics had no answers to our attack. They mostly scored at 140 pace; there was a short period when Turner was in when 160 looked possible, but they subsided back into the 140's once he was out. It was never going to be enough, barring a shock batting slide, which can never be ruled out with our history

For now, we look in good shape. It was important for Clark to get those runs today... 62 off 26

[Durhamfootman]

18 ball 50 for Clark

87-0 at the end of the PP. For comparison, Leics were, I think, 33-1

in a way, it's surprising we needed 14 overs to knock the runs off.

[Durhamfootman]

the women have got a rough deal this week

4 games in 8 days (inc today)

Home
down to london on Wed
dragged back up here Fri
hauled down to Notts Sun

[Durhamfootman]

Now that the scheduling is mean't to address the players concerns about back to back matches, the new philosophy seems to be to get them as many miles of travelling as humanly possible on the day in between

maybe the ECB have the coaching equivalent of an air miles deal with BP?

[Durhamfootman]

seemingly this was Clarky's 19th fifty in T20.... one more than Phil Mustard

[captaincolly]

I didn't make it. Was hoping to get there for the men's game but was too late.Looked like two excellent performances and suddenly the women seem to be making a big improvement.
Pretty clinical win for the men to continue an encouraging start to the season.