Durham Match Thread 2019

[Durhamfootman]

Salisbury needs to address his economy problems at the start of an innings or he could be making way. Raine seems to bowl tightly, so I'd be tempted to open him with Rushy and bring Salisbury in first change..... I doubt that we will do that though.

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Eckersley at 7, where a wicket keeper should be batting, and then we have all kinds of options for 4 and 5 who could then be selected on form

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I still think Ben Raine should be batting at 6. He scored 42 in the first innings from 8 and he's 4 runs away from being second top run scorer in this innings. I think he could do well at 6 as long as he isn't coming in at 97-5 every time

next.......another 42 runs

Trevaskis seems a capable enough no. 8

come on boys.... I'm putting it on a plate for you

Surely I'm not the only one who assumed that our international opener (former, of course) would open for us. He came in today in the fourth over, and in the first innings it was the second over (against Sussex he came in the ninth and the first over respectively), so he might as well be opening where hopefully he can blunt the opposition attack instead of inspiring them with 3 cheap wickets every innings.

6th over today.... they'll get there eventually, I suppose.... horse/water/drink and all that

[captaincolly]

Salisbury needs to address his economy problems at the start of an innings or he could be making way. Raine seems to bowl tightly, so I'd be tempted to open him with Rushy and bring Salisbury in first change..... I doubt that we will do that though.

tick

Eckersley at 7, where a wicket keeper should be batting, and then we have all kinds of options for 4 and 5 who could then be selected on form

tick

I still think Ben Raine should be batting at 6. He scored 42 in the first innings from 8 and he's 4 runs away from being second top run scorer in this innings. I think he could do well at 6 as long as he isn't coming in at 97-5 every time

next.......another 42 runs

Trevaskis seems a capable enough no. 8

come on boys.... I'm putting it on a plate for you

Surely I'm not the only one who assumed that our international opener (former, of course) would open for us. He came in today in the fourth over, and in the first innings it was the second over (against Sussex he came in the ninth and the first over respectively), so he might as well be opening where hopefully he can blunt the opposition attack instead of inspiring them with 3 cheap wickets every innings.

6th over today.... they'll get there eventually, I suppose.... horse/water/drink and all that

Agreed. Only surprise today was - with Pringle opening- Bangers wasn't in before the 6th over.
Time to bring Will Smith in. I'm not confident he'll score runs but he's certainly a better option than Pringle...who will probably, / hopefully get a big score in the second innings now I've written him off!

[Durhamfootman]

given that Benny Howell averages 28 and has 2 hundreds in 124 innings, you just know that he'll score his 3rd ton tomorrow

[Durhamfootman]

Time to bring Will Smith in. I'm not confident he'll score runs but he's certainly a better option than Pringle...who will probably, / hopefully get a big score in the second innings now I've written him off!

There is zero chance of Pringle getting a big score, but I admire your fatalistic attempt to reverse jinx him.

No point Smith opening, but I could see him grinding out a 50 ball 5 runs at 3 or 4

I have no idea what has happened to Harte. He looked so calm and solid against Sussex. Blows my 'Harte for opener' theory out of the water. He's scored 26 in his last 3 innings including 1 and 0 in his last 2

[Durhamfootman]

this is the sort of thing that we are good at

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/48335984

[captaincolly]

Time to bring Will Smith in. I'm not confident he'll score runs but he's certainly a better option than Pringle...who will probably, / hopefully get a big score in the second innings now I've written him off!

There is zero chance of Pringle getting a big score, but I admire your fatalistic attempt to reverse jinx him.

No point Smith opening, but I could see him grinding out a 50 ball 5 runs at 3 or 4

I have no idea what has happened to Harte. He looked so calm and solid against Sussex. Blows my 'Harte for opener' theory out of the water. He's scored 26 in his last 3 innings including 1 and 0 in his last 2

I think Harte is another victim of only having one batsman of proven class. The pressure is always on and if about 5 of the top 6 are unproven at this level then these collapses are almost guaranteed. Harte looks to be a good player, Burnham has played some promising innings, Lees clearly has ability. But if they're all in the same lineup they have no chance imo.

[Durhamfootman]

Burnham has done okay. One of very few

[captaincolly]

Burnham has done okay. One of very few

Yep. I think individually there's a fair amount of promise. As you suggested, Raine would be better batting higher up the order but if the top 5 was half decent his runs down the order would be very useful. Through no fault of his own the 30s and 40s aren't having an impact.

[SaintPowelly]

From the outside looking in, there seems to be some weirdness about this current Durham side.

1. You sign an International opener and then don’t open with him, which is fine if you are trying to bed in an opening pair ( Hants did the same thing with Markram and then opened with Vince), but it looks 4 different openers have been used and no clear plans.

2. Raine and Eckersley, as good as they potentially could be, is signing 2 players from Leicestershire who at one stage went 2 years without winning a game really going to solve the issues you have? Particularly when you have Will Smith sat on the sidelines.

[captaincolly]

From the outside looking in, there seems to be some weirdness about this current Durham side.

1. You sign an International opener and then don’t open with him, which is fine if you are trying to bed in an opening pair ( Hants did the same thing with Markram and then opened with Vince), but it looks 4 different openers have been used and no clear plans.

2. Raine and Eckersley, as good as they potentially could be, is signing 2 players from Leicestershire who at one stage went 2 years without winning a game really going to solve the issues you have? Particularly when you have Will Smith sat on the sidelines.

Yep, it is strange. I thought Bancroft at 3 was because, as he's overseas so probably just here for a short time, they wanted Lees & Steel to try and establish themselves as an opening partnership. But Steel ditched after 2 games with Pringle in as opener is very odd.
I think the two Leicestershire players might have been released because the club has financial problems and couldn't afford to keep them. Both good players but not outstanding.
Durham must still be strapped for cash, the changes to the coaching set up meant that Franklin came in just before the start of the season with little time to bring in new players so Marcus North was the one who would have been looking to strengthen this squad - his failure to do so must have been down to finances. North & Franklin will obviously never say they don't think this squad is remotely good enough but I'm sure they know it isn't.

[captaincolly]

I think we'll take a couple of early wickets but still end up conceding about 50 runs on first innings. Then, of course, we'll lose 4 or 5 wickets before we get into credit and rue not having an extra 100 runs to defend tomorrow after tea.

You're prediction is correct so far - they have lost 2 wickets and are still 14 runs behind.

[captaincolly]

And now the last wicket pair have secured a lead!

[captaincolly]

All out for a lead of 16.
No doubt there'll be a solid batting effort for the rest of the day to secure a healthy lead with wickets intact at the close of play!
Got to nip out to the shops and then I'll head to the Riverside in time to see the openers register a 100 stand.

[Arthur Crabtree]

With Gloucs batting last, seems reasonable that Durham have one hand on the driver's seat.

[Durhamfootman]

Their lead was not as bad as I feared

I'm really cross.... penultimate ball before lunch, only 1 down, and I decided to refresh the scorecard fearing that we'd lose a second wicket.... and lo and behold.... we do!

of course we do

it's what we do

every pigging time

no wonder supporters get frustrated with them. We'll lose another straight away after lunch and be 3 down with a 28 run lead