And so, suddenly, the County Championship enters the home straight, dusk fast chasing six o’clock stumps. Despite Durham clinching promotion on Monday without playing a ball, courtesy of Leicestershire’s batting malfunction at Hove, there is still plenty to mull over in the last two rounds – from the Oval to Headingley, and everywhere in between.
A victory for Bazball At the start of the season Durham announced they were going to embrace the method championed by their favourite son and throw caution to the wind. Matthew Potts, fresh from touring with England, raised an eyebrow or two when he trumpeted that they would rather lose every game than play for a draw, while the new head coach, Ryan Campbell, revealed: “The players here have a glint in their eye and they want to excite people.” Now, with promotion and six wins from 12 games already under their belt, and only five points away from being crowned Division Two champions, Durham have been as good as their word – cracking along at more than four an over in all but five of their 18 innings, and Alex Lees not only the leading run-scorer in the country but averaging 75 at a strike rate of 73. And if you think Bazball is just for Division Two, think again. “We’re not going … just to survive,” says Campbell, “we’re going to try to win the thing [title], I reckon there’s a lot more exciting cricket to come.”
