[themaclad]

Next up Durham who this season started level point with everybody after being shafted by the ECB in money and points term, lost most of their better players so a chance to win and more importantly an afternoon going brown. Here's the official line from Lancashire's equivalent to Pravda

Lancashire are bidding to bounce back from Thursday’s opening night defeat to champions Nottinghamshire as Durham visit.

The Red Rose county fell narrowly short in a high-scoring thriller against the Outlaws as they chased 319, with Keaton Jennings having a good day out with both ball and bat, taking two wickets and scoring a century.

Matt Parkinson, on his Lancashire List A debut like Jennings, picked up five wickets.



Jennings will face the county he left last September to make the move to the North West, as could Graham Onions, who was in Thursday’s squad without making the final eleven.

TEAM NEWS:

Alex Davies took a bang on his injured left thumb during the latter stages of the Notts innings and handed over the gloves to Dane Vilas, something he is likely to do for the entire match.

It could also be that Glen Chapple and Liam Livingstone opt for an extra seamer or batsman in the eleven for this clash.

OPPONENTS:

Durham endured a difficult summer last year in both Championship and T20 cricket having been hit hard by the ECB’s penalties for their well documented financial problems.

But the RL50 was their most productive format, winning four of their eight games, including beating champions in an early group game at Trent Bridge.

In fact, had they started the competition without an ECB two-point penalty, they would have qualified for the knockout stages a point ahead of champions Notts.

This year, they started on a level-footing points wise, although they were beaten in yesterday’s opener against Yorkshire at Emirates Riverside.

LAST TIME OUT:

Lancashire won the final group game of last year’s competition by 28 runs thanks largely to Dane Vilas’s fine 108, his second hundred of the campaign.

Vilas underpinned a total of 304-8, also including 50 from Alex Davies at the top of the order, with the South African fashioning a recovery from 126-4 in the 27th over having been inserted.

In reply, Durham were never realistically in the hunt at they slipped to 19-2, including the early loss of Keaton Jennings. Michael Richardson top-scored with 58, while Kyle Jarvis led the way with 3-42 from his 10 overs.

WHAT THEY SAID:

“It will be a little bit strange,” said Keaton Jennings ahead of his first encounter against Durham since leaving in September.

“I have a lot of my mates in that changing room, but hopefully we can get one over on them early in the season.

“The banter started ages ago with things like me saying to a couple of their guys ‘I’m going to get you out’ and vice versa.



“It’s all in good fun. I’m looking forward to it. It should be a good game.

“They are the kind of side that are going to cause a few upsets. There are some exciting cricketers in that changing room.

“There’s information that I can pass on to our guys to help us win the game. If they can pass on information, hopefully I can combat the way they try to exploit my skill set. That’s cricket.”

“Hopefully we play some really good cricket,” added Jennings, who has warned that Durham will be no pushovers.

“They’ve got some good cricketers. There’s Paul Collingwood coming in at five or six with some young cricketers around him.

“Michael Richardson scored plenty of runs last year, Stuey Poynter got 170 last week, Graham Clark’s a fantastic cricketer. That’s just to name a few.

“I don't think you’re guaranteed a win against them at all. You need to make sure you play good cricket.”