The Colonel will start
Phil Mustard is Durham’s first choice T20 Blast wicket-keeper. He has made over 125 Twenty20 appearances, which is more than anyone in the county’s history and his white-ball performances remain top class, even with fellow glovemen Michael Richardson and Stuart Poynter performing well.
Phil’s record speaks for itself. He’s a match-winner when he’s on
Mark Stoneman
Speaking at a recent press conference Jets captain confirmed that “It will be the Colonel to start” in T20 Blast for the 2016 season.
“They’re all in contention but Phil’s record speaks for itself. He’s a match-winner when he’s on so he’ll be getting first crack at it.”
Following Stonemason’s comments the Colonel launched Durham’s NatWest T20 Blast in blistering style and allowed them to cruise to a win against Lancashire at Old Trafford. After bowling and fielding well to restrict the title-holders to 149 for eight, Mustard opened up with four fours and a six off the first five balls of the reply. Mustard went on to make 46 from just 18 balls.
here isn’t much that the Colonel hasn’t seen before
What has been the key to Mustard’s T20 Blast success, well firstly he’s been good for a long time, Mustard is way ahead as the Riversiders’ all-time top-scorer in Twenty20 cricket. Second-placed Gordon Muchall, with 1,872 runs, is over 1,000 behind.
Aside from being a ballistic scorer he also commands a tight field and he is instrumental in the way that the Jets strangle results and restrict run rates. Mustard is also among the most experienced players in the Durham Jets squad having played over 160 T20 games, so there isn’t much that the Colonel hasn’t seen before.
The pressure will be on Birmingham’s bowling attack to limit the damage that Mustard can cause and our batters will have to be extra sharp around Mustard’s authoritative lead in the field.
Get Bears vs Jets NatWest T20 Blast Tickets
Our next game is crunch fixture against Durham Jets. The Jets have started strongly but a win from the Bears will see us bounce back to the top half of the table. This game promises to be a cracker.
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