\t\tLAST TIME OUT VS DURHAM<\/p>\n
The last time Durham faced Surrey at the Kia Oval in the Vitality Blast, Surrey delivered one of their most complete performances of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n
Ryana Macdonald-Gay made an early impact, striking in the second over to dismiss experienced New Zealand international Suzie Bates for five, her middle stump sent flying. Macdonald-Gay struck again in the fourth over, removing Mady Villiers to put Surrey firmly on top.<\/p>\n
Durham posted 141\/5, setting Surrey a modest target. In responde, Bryony Smith set the tone with a quick-fire 44 from 28 balls, but it was Danni Wyatt-Hodge who took centre stage, cruising to a composed and professional unbeaten 77.<\/p>\n
The England opener guided Surrey to victory in the 13th over alongside Kira Chathli.<\/p>\n
Surrey will be looking to replicate that dominant performance on Wednesday night as they hunt for their third win in a row.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
DURHAM<\/p>\n
Captain: Hollie Armitage<\/p>\n
Overseas player:\u00a0Heather Graham (Australia, all)<\/p>\n
2025 finish:\u00a05th<\/p>\n
2025 leading run-scorer:\u00a0Suzie Bates (439)<\/p>\n
2025 leading wicket-taker:\u00a0Katie Levick (13)<\/p>\n
Key winter moves:\u00a0Australian all-rounder Heather Graham has been signed to replace veteran New Zealander Suzie Bates, who was unable to return to the North East because of T20 World Cup duty. Graham has spent the last two seasons as an overseas player with The Blaze. She was a Charlotte Edwards T20 Cup winner in 2024 and a Blast semi-finalist last summer.<\/p>\n
The big question:\u00a0Can Durham kick on from last year\u2019s mid-table, group stage finish? Only five wins from 14 matches last term left them short of a Finals Day appearance by a good distance. Two fewer games this season, they must target at least six wins to have a chance of a top-four finish for a 17 July trip to the Kia Oval.<\/p>\n
Wildcard watch:\u00a0Sophia Turner. Spinners Katie Levick (13 wickets) and Mady Villiers (11) led the way with the ball for Durham in last season\u2019s Blast, but skilful Sophia Turner \u2013 aged 23 \u2013 was their most prolific seamer with 10. She struck in six of her last seven Blast games in 2025, the other being a No Result. She is used more late in an innings by Hollie Armitage.<\/p>\n
Final thought:\u00a0Hollie Armitage and Bess Heath will be hoping they can transfer that winning feeling from last year\u2019s Hundred with the Northern Superchargers through to their county. The knowledge they gained from that can only help the younger players in Durham\u2019s squad. The loss of director of cricket Marcus North to England as the new men\u2019s national selector within sight of the competition starting is not ideal, but the bulk of the preparation for this campaign will be done now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAST TIME OUT VS DURHAM The last time Durham faced Surrey at the Kia Oval in the Vitality…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-695275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}