Durham in desperate need of a win (From Durham Times)

Durham in desperate need of a win

8:00am Wednesday 27th June 2012 in Sport By Tim Wellock

DURHAM need to complete a double over Derbyshire at Chester-le-Street this evening to keep their interest alive in this season's Friends Life t20 competition.

They will stand by the squad which has been on duty in the first half of the programme, recording two wins and three defeats, despite a blistering innings by Michael Di Venuto for the second team.

After a month's absence with an Achilles problem, the left-handed opener thrashed 156 not out off 80 balls in a Second X1 Trophy match against Northamptonshire at Brandon.

The same two sides are currently contesting a three-day Second X1 Championship match at the same venue, with Ian Blackwell also returning after his back problem and Steve Harmison continuing his search for form.

The one-day game was reduced to 25 overs a side, but with Di Venuto hitting nine sixes Durham amassed 238 for four then restricted the visitors to 128 for seven.

Northants included Australian seamer A J Tye, who took nine wickets in a match against them for Durham seconds at Milton Keynes last season.

Durham won by five wickets at Derby last Wednesday, but have since lost to Yorkshire and Lancashire.

After the eight-wicket hammering at Old Trafford, one-day captain Dale Benkenstein admitted that his side's total of 121 was about 50 short of requirements.

"With the nature of this game, if you don't get the partnerships, it costs you," he said. A combination of a bit of bad thinking in our batting and some good bowling from them meant we never really got that partnership up front. We needed a base to get 170, which I thought was a par score.

"They've got good, experienced bowlers and it was a good day for Gary Keedy. He is a clever bowler and they got the better of us.

"We bowled pretty well up front and got an early wicket. But Steven Croft took the game away from us. He executed his skills a lot better than we did.

"The important thing is to get ourselves back up and go out and perform. We know we're better than that but these things happen. Good sides come back and that's what we've got to do."