DUR vs WRW 89th Match - North Group Prediction

DUR vs WRW Team Previews

Durham

In one of the T20 Blast encounters played in Manchester yesterday, the Durham Dynamos was playing against Lancashire. Showers came down during the match and Lancashire won the game according to the D/L method. Batting first, Lancashire managed to put together a score of 195 runs for the loss of 7 wickets on the board. After the rain interruption, the target was revised to 158 runs from 17 overs. But the Durham batters had managed 150 runs for the loss of 3 wickets during their chase at this stage.

After Lancashire had set a tough target to chase for the Durham outfit, we saw Michael Jones and Alex Lees getting the Dynamos' innings right on the track while scoring 125 runs for the first wicket. But the showers came down when 3 overs were still left and the Lancashire team was declared a winner by a margin of 7 runs. The Durham bowlers got off to a good start when Wayne Parnell got rid of Phil Salt on the 1st ball of the game with a peach of a delivery. He then got rid of Colin de Grandhomme lbw 3 balls later.

During the chase of 191 runs, under darkening skies and a threat of thunderstorms, Durham's opening batsmen got their chase off to a flyer. They were helped by some wayward bowling and scored 64 runs from their first powerplay. The Durham opening wicket stand kept on growing after the powerplay with both Jones and Lees crossing the 50-run mark. The opening wicket stand was broken on the score of 125 runs. This was the biggest stand recorded by Durham batters against Lancashire but rain played spoilsport in what looked like a cracker of a game.  

Birmingham Bears

The Warwickshire or Birmingham Bears team played their last game in the T20 Blast against Worcestershire. This North Group game was played at the venue of Worcester on 16th June. While batting first, Birmingham Bears put together 196 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Then they performed an efficient restriction job on Worcestershire limiting them to a score of 175 runs for the loss of 6 wickets. The Bears ended up winning the contest by a margin of 21 runs. With this victory, Birmingham Bears have now consolidated their position at the top of the points table.

Bears owe this excellent effort with the bat to the super late innings played by Jacob Bethell and Dan Mousley. Mousely scored 49 not out while Bethell hit 32 runs. Both these innings were the top scores for these sides this season. Although the Worcestershire skipper Brett D'Oliveira hit a half-century, none of the other batters could get the Bears spinners away. After losing the toss, the Bears were asked to bat first. Their opening pair of Rob Yates and Alex Davies provided a good start to their inning.

Although there were some useful knocks played by batters such as Glenn Maxwell and Benjamin, it was left to Bethell and Mousley, in the end, to take the total close to 200 run mark. These two hammered 51 from 3.1 overs. The Bears’ bowling attack was right on the money and they made quick inroads in the Worcestershire batting order. The Worcestershire batsmen found it difficult to get the Bears spinners away for runs as the required run rate climbed past 13 per over. There was a late flurry from Usama but the target was out of reach by then.