By Huzaifa Yousafzai from Kia Oval
Durham were thoroughly beaten by Surrey in the first quarter final of T20 Blast as the home side eased their way to a 5 wicket victory at the Kia Oval.
Although Sam Curran and Dom Sibley scored fifties in a routine chase of 162, it was the opening spells of Reece Topley and Daniel Worrall that really set the game up for Surrey.
Durham coach Ryan Campbell admitted that Surrey’s powerplay bowling was a key factor in putting his side on the backfoot right from the beginning of the game.
“It’s a beautiful cricket wicket here at the Kia Oval as it’s fast and bouncy but it does give bowlers a chance. Some of the bowling early on was excellent and you’ve just got to take your hats off as they would be getting anyone out.”
However, Campbell showed that he wasn’t overly disappointed as Durham had fought very well against a tough opponent and managed to keep themselves in the contest.
“Tonight we played against a bloody good cricket team, and we probably had no right to get into the position that we were in at the end of the first innings considering the tough start we had. We never give up and we never surrender so the way that (Michael) Jones, (Bas) de Leede and then Ben Raine batted gave us a chance in the game and that was brilliant.”
Campbell then further expanded on his team’s fighting spirit and how it reflects the region of England that they represent as Durham County Cricket Club.
“We are a working class team that have to work for every minute of every day and that’s how we want to be as that’s how North East (England) is. You want these guys in the trenches with you and when they go over the top, they go full in.”
The former Australian wicketkeeper says that there is a lot of good signs to build on, but fatigue may have been a factor in his side’s failings towards the back end of the season.
“We don’t want to just congratulate ourselves and say that it’s fantastic to get to a quarterfinal. We want to be a very good white ball cricket team and for us to do that we need to keep taking bigger steps. We have a lot of players who play all formats and by the end of the season we start to run out of a bit of a puff, so I think that’s something that we’re going to look at.”
