Di Venuto happy to hand leading role back to Dale

May 14 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

MICHAEL Di Venuto will gladly hand the responsibility of captaining Durham back to Dale Benkenstein against Yorkshire in the County Championship today.

Di Venuto took control of the team for the comprehensive defeat by Lancashire at Old Trafford last week and was in charge again for the vital Friends Provident Trophy victory over Scotland last Sunday.

But Benkenstein, who flew home to South Africa last week to be at the birth of his third child, returned to the North East yesterday and will hope to kick-start Durham’s season with a victory over their local rivals.

“It’ll be good to have Dale back because he’s such an important part of the team,” said Di Venuto, who has managed to keep his frustration in check this week despite being run out by team-mates when well set in each of his last two innings.

“He’s not a ranter and a raver as a captain. He leads by example, but he is such a committed and uncompromising cricketer that his presence inevitably has an effect on those around him.

“I think we really missed him against Lancashire last week, as well as Neil McKenzie. It was a comprehensive defeat and we were outclassed. We didn’t do our jobs properly with the bat and we didn’t stand up to Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson.

“We could have done with Benks and Neil there to steady the ship after we lost early wickets. The players who came in probably hadn’t faced an attack like that before because you don’t normally get that in county cricket. I’ll be glad to hand the captaincy back to him. It was an honour to help the club out, but hopefully I can just concentrate on playing for the rest of the season.”

Although Durham’s form has not been disastrous, they are struggling to match the heights of last year and have won only two one-day games. Di Venuto believes it is up to the batsmen to give Durham’s strong bowling attack something to play with against Yorkshire as they have failed to score more than 250 runs in an innings this season.

“We haven’t had a big partnership so far this season and I think that has been our main problem. Big scores, particularly first innings scores, are vital but we haven’t performed with the bat yet.

“That is something we have talked about since the defeat at Old Trafford and that is the area of our game we want to improve against Yorkshire.”

Di Venuto’s lack of runs at the top of the order has also been a concern, especially as the Tasmanian was approaching the 500-run mark at the same stage last season.

He added: “I feel as though I’m seeing the ball and hitting it well enough, I’m just crying out for some time out in the middle. I was well set against Lancashire in the second innings and I had just started to hit a few against Scotland but on both occasions I was run out.

“All I need is a bit of time out there, though, and the runs will come. I’m feeling pretty good and hopefully I’ve had all my bad luck.”

Durham have recalled seamer Callum Thorp into the squad, but Garry Park has been dropped for his failure to make a meaningful score against Lancashire.

Durham Squad to face Yorkshire (home): Michael Di Venuto, Mark Stoneman, Kyle Coetzer, Neil McKenzie, Dale Benkenstein (captain), Phil Mustard (wkt), Ben Harmison, Paul Wiseman, Graham Onions, Stephen Harmison, Mark Davies, Callum Thorp, Mitchell Claydon.