Teenager may get debut in cup clash

Jun 16 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

TEENAGER Scott Borthwick could make his Durham debut in tomorrow’s televised Twenty20 Cup game against Lancashire, but captain Dale Benkenstein insisted it would not be the result of a panic reaction to his side’s first defeat in the competition.

The Riversiders’ 100% start to the group stages ended at Trent Bridge on Saturday but Benkenstein was not about to lambast his players for the way they performed in the 23-run defeat.

Benkenstein is looking to tinker with what he basically feels is a winning formula and his solution could be to select Sunderland-born 18-year-old Borthwick for the first time against the Red Rose county.

Durham dropped their policy of selecting two spinners against a Notts side packed with powerful hitters such as Andre Adams, Chris Cairns, Chris Read and Mark Ealham. The one they did pick, Gareth Breese, was surprisingly not called upon to bowl in a format where the slower men traditionally prosper.

Indeed it was a spinner, Durham University graduate Rob Ferley, who claimed the game’s best figures (3-17) but unlike Breese and Paul Wiseman, Ferley is a left-armer. “There’s a couple of things I would like so see us do in the next few games,” Benkenstein said after Saturday’s defeat. It would make a big difference to have a left-arm spinner or leg-spinner available.

“With that in mind, we might have a look at Scotty Borthwick, our young leg-spinner, in the next game.”

Benkenstein explained that while he overlooked Breese on Saturday, he sees the versatile Jamaican as an important part of Durham’s plans in a competition they have a good chance of winning for the first time.

“I think we were doing a good job and the fielding was pretty solid,” he said. “There was a short boundary on one side of the ground. The seamers were doing well and they had Chris Cairns and Samit Patel at the crease, so it was my gut feeling to keep going with them.

“Breesey’s one of our best bowlers in one-day cricket. I probably could have given him one over but sometimes in Twenty20 cricket, if you go for a big over, you can lose control and the batters can take the game away from you.”

New Zealander Cairns, now retired from all forms of the game but Twenty20, hit three sixes in 37, while Patel struck 56 in 45 balls. Replying to Nottinghamshire’s 166-6, Benkenstein (34) and Will Smith (41) led Durham’s recovery from a shaky start. But Benkenstein was Durham’s fourth man out with the score on 90 and the rest quickly followed as the visitors were bowled out for 143.

On the back of consecutive northern group victories over Derbyshire and Leicestershire, Benkenstein was not about to get carried away by a setback, however. “I thought we actually bowled quite nicely,” he argued. “160-odd was an average score on that ground so we backed ourselves to get it.

“We haven’t got off to good starts in this competition yet and Saturday was no different. We thought we got pretty much back on track after we lost the fourth wicket but it didn’t prove to be the case. In the end, it was hard for us to win. We didn’t take the opportunity to win it and that was a bit disappointing. In a 10-match Twenty20 tournament, you’re going to lose games so we mustn’t over-react. To have won two of our first three games is better than we normally do!”

If Borthwick does get the nod tomorrow, Mitch Claydon could step down.

The Australian seamer has struggled in this form of the game, perhaps in part because of a lack of match practice before this week, and did not take the new ball at Trent Bridge. Shaun Pollock, Albie Morkel and the fit-again Neil Killeen all claimed two wickets against Nottinghamshire.