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Durham v Worcestershire [a] C.C. 8/5/26


Us and Northants the only unbeaten sides coming into this round, looking very much like that record will have gone by Monday night.
 
Raymondo said:
My first thoughts on this are that it’s a bit of an odd squad, or atleast it leads me to believe the balance of the side will be a little bit ‘goofy’.

I support the idea of resting our strike bowlers if/when possible given the grind of a county summer and obviously Stokes’ return allows us the luxury where his omission shouldn’t be as heavily felt as it would be if we didn’t have one of the greatest allrounders of all time slotting into the side. However, there’s been talk of Stokes taking the new ball, which feels quite odd given he’s never done it for any prolonged period before. I was excited to see him in an attack alongside Potts and Raine (we may get that next week) because it’s become clear through four games that if we do have a weakness, it’s the change bowlers, who are largely falling short of the required standard once Raine and Potts have taken their sweaters. Putting a bowler of Stokes’ calibre into our attack should constitute an upgrade of ‘cheat code’ levels. It definitely would do if he was coming on after Potts and Raine, but the oddity that is potentially being created here brings to the surface a worry (for me, but maybe I worry too much) that the team that takes to the field tomorrow will be weaker as a whole than the one that started the game at Lords.

Hopefully I’m worrying about nowt, I’m fairly certain Stokes will give his absolute all to make an impression and drag us to a third win of the year. Either way, I’m excited for 11:00 tomorrow.
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To reference the above, Stokes bowled just four overs with the new ball and returned with another spell of four overs after Lunch on Day 1. He started today with 3 overs, followed by another 3 later on - it’s clear that his load is being managed. It’s even clearer that we’re far too reliant on Ben Raine, who continues to bail the team out of the clarts time and time again from a bowling standpoint.

I was worried about the balance of the side coming into it and I think it’s fair to say at the end of Day 2 that my fears have been realised. Stokes isn’t an opening bowler and historically he’s been most valuable to us (and England) when he’s bowled 6/7/8+ over spells with aggression and intent because that’s when he gets fully into a groove and can single-handedly win games with his determination and sheer bloody mindedness.

I understand the desire to protect Potts, it’s a very long season and along with Raine it could be argued they are the two most important people at the club at present. However his absence, twinned with the odd choice to throw Stokes the new ball has knocked the entire team out of kilter. Hindsight is 20/20 (I prefer red ball) but maybe with Olivier not quite being ready it would’ve been better to rest Potts next week? With Olivier coming in for that one?

We were all excited to get Stokes back, I was confident he would strengthen the bowling considerably. What’s more, given their injury crisis, it looked as though this could’ve been men against boys. What we’ve seen so far though is the age old notion that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. I concede that’s probably oversimplifying it, but to look at the two teams and compare them man for man there is probably only two (three at the absolute most) Worcestershire players that I’d have in a combined XI and yet we’ll begin Day 3 staring down the barrel of a substantial first innings deficit.

The opposition are allowed to play well of course, they’re getting paid too, they’ve come into this game with their backs firmly against the wall and more questions than answered and they’ve performed brilliantly. Their supporters should be over the moon.

For all the fanfare over our top order, they’ve completely failed as a collective.

Potts and Olivier must come into the side next week and if there is any thought at all about resting Raine, they need to forget it, he absolutely must play every single one of our 14 Championship games this season. He can sit out the entire Blast and One Day Cup as far as I’m concerned.

Again, I was worried about the balance of the side and clearly something has been off for two days. Could it be simple complacency? I really hope not. Believing their own hype? Again, I hope not. BUT, now is where Campbell and his staff earn their coin, get into the minds of the players that they’ve got two days to put it right - it worked against Lancashire, they’ve done it before, they can do it again.

HWTL 🙌
 
Raymondo said:
Us and Northants the only unbeaten sides coming into this round, looking very much like that record will have gone by Monday night.
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Northants are under the cosh but I wouldn't write us off yet. This division is proving to be evenly matched so the odd hick up is inevitable.Given the strength of our batting we should rarely be bowled out twice in a match.
Perhaps Lees place should be more in doubt than Robinson but I can't see either happening in the near future. Rhodes needs to be included but that will only happen when Gay is called up for England.
 
Parkside said:
Perhaps Lees place should be more in doubt than Robinson but I can't see either happening in the near future. Rhodes needs to be included but that will only happen when Gay is called up for England.
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I'll be pleased when Lees retires. Doesn't contribute with the bat enough, awful tactical captain and the lack of enthusiasm when we are fielding stems from his miserable demeanour.
 
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