NZ all-rounder Neesham joins Durham for T20 Blast

Durham have signed New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham for this season's T20 Blast competition.The 34-year-old left-hander is a veteran of 83 T20 internationals and 76 ODI games for the Black Caps.Neesham, who also bowls right-arm seam, will play for his sixth county after previous stints with Derbyshire, Essex, Kent, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire as well as in The Hundred for Welsh Fire.A veteran of the T20 circuit, he has played in leagues in India, Pakistan, South Africa and West Indies."Jimmy's ability to influence games either with the bat or ball provides us with a proven match-winner," said Durham director of cricket Marcus North.
The north east county reached the quarter-finals of the T20 Blast in 2024 for the first time in six years.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Daily Mail​

an hour ago

• Daily Mail​

England stay patient after decision to ask India to bat backfires as bowling coach Tim Southee puts his faith in new ball and 'X-factor' Ben Stokes

England bowling coach Tim Southee invited judgment to be reserved until both teams have batted after a 'tough' opening day against India at Headingley. Not since Nasser Hussain inserted Australia in the 2002-03 Ashes has a toss decision at the start of a five-match series been scrutinised as heavily as that of Ben Stokes. Just as in Brisbane, when the hosts piled up 364 for two, the opening hours featured two centurions in Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal as England did not make use of what moisture there was in the pitch. 'It was a tough day, but we will get our opportunity to bat soon,' said Southee after India hit 359 for three. 'When you win the toss and bowl you expect to make early inroads, but the Indian openers negotiated the first hour pretty well. Once the wicket flattened, it was a pretty good surface. 'We have a job to do with the second new ball and then there are a few batters who will be keen to get out there.' Only nine balls Gill faced would have gone on to hit the stumps, but Southee highlighted how the favoured mode of dismissal of Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse is caught behind, leading to them operating outside off-stump. With others offering little threat, it was left to Stokes to provide two breakthroughs, striking in each of two spells that made up figures of two for 43. After two hamstring tears in 2024, the 34-year-old is back as an all-rounder, but England fans will not want him to overdo things in an Ashes year. 'There's always a question around that with the injuries he's had, but he's a player that makes things happen, a real X-factor player, and we saw that,' added Southee. 'When he's doing that it's tough to get the ball out of his hand. He's out there making the calls, so if he's feeling like he's threatening he's going to bowl. It's as well as I have seen him bowl for a while.'

BBC News

an hour ago

• BBC News

T20 Blast: Jacks stars for Surrey and Somerset win again

England white-ball batter Will Jacks provided the Friday night fireworks in the T20 Blast as Surrey hammered Middlesex by 75 runs at the Kia front of a packed crowd, Jacks hit 97 off 56 balls, with five sixes, as Surrey enjoyed a third win in four stay second in the South Group, four points behind leaders Somerset who made it seven wins out of eight with a six-wicket success over Glamorgan. Northamptonshire remain top of the North Group, but it is now back-to-back defeats after they lost by 24 runs to Nottinghamshire jumped up to second as they smashed a huge 243-7 against Derbyshire in an emphatic 80-run victory, while Durham beat Yorkshire by 63 the best game of the night, Gloucestershire beat Hampshire by two wickets off the last ball of the game, while Bears had a thrilling one-wicket win over Worcestershire at Edgbaston, also in the final spare a thought for Essex, who remain winless after losing by 47 runs at home to Kent. South Group - Top two pulling clear Runners-up last year and winners in 2023, Somerset's T20 pedigree was again in evidence at Sophia seam attack of Matt Henry, Riley Meredith and captain Lewis Gregory reduced Glamorgan to 49-5 in the ninth over and the innings did not recover.A total of 130-9 never looked to be enough as T20 specialist Tom Kohler-Cadmore hit 38, with Gregory scoring the winning run with 20 balls to captain Stevie Eskinazi had asked Surrey to bat first in the London derby and he must have regretted it when Jacks was hitting to all fell three short of his hundred and the loss of wickets in the latter overs kept the score to reply, Middlesex lost wickets at regular intervals, with New Zealand white-ball skipper Mitchell Santner impressing with it was left to Jacks to grab the last wicket as Surrey bowled their rivals out for just opted to chase at Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, in Chelmsford, in search of that elusive win, but they watched Kent opener Tawenda Muyeye strike his maiden T20 century with 100 off 59 balls as they racked up an imposing Elgar struck 50, but Matt Parkinson produced his T20 best figures of 5-23 to leave the chase in tatters.T20 captain Simon Harmer smashed four successive sixes as he hit 55 off 21 balls before he was last man out as they were bowled out for defence of their T20 crown began with six straight losses, but they made it two wins in a row in a Bristol Payne starred with the ball taking 3-20 as Hampshire were squeezed to despite D'Arcy Short's 49, things got tense as Liam Dawson and Benny Howell slowed up the scoring, and with three needed off Chris Wood's final over and then one off the last ball, Payne hit it for six to secure victory. North Group - big wins for Lancs and Durham Northamptonshire opened the T20 season with six straight wins, five of which were achieved by batting decided to bat themselves and despite losing wickets, Tom Moores' 53 helped them to in successive overs from England Lions leg-spinner Farhan Ahmed put the Outlaws on top as Northants slipped to 45-4 inside nine put them in trouble and they were always second best, eventually all out for 140 in the final Midlands derby at Edgbaston provided the drama even though visitors Worcestershire were bowled out for 134 in the 19th over batting first as Dan Mousley took 4-19 for Davies hit 42, but his wicket to Fateh Singh (3-18) and then two in two balls from the slow left-armer left the hosts in big trouble at Sam Hain played a match-winning knock of 38 not out as he guided the tail through with just one wicket and three balls to spare. Meeting for the second time in six days, Yorkshire invited Durham to bat at Chester-le-Street with opener Graham Clark hitting 53, before New Zealand white-ball specialist Jimmy Neesham provided a fine 42 not out from 21 balls to take the score to needed a big innings to get close, but nobody bettered Adam Lyth's 38, with four Durham bowlers claiming two wickets each to bowl out their opponents for 130 in the 18th Wells plundered a club record eight sixes in a Lancashire T20 innings as he top-scored with 83 in his side's huge total against Derbyshire, while Matty Hurst smashed 59 off only 29 Caleb Jewell was last man out for 65 as the hosts were bowled out for 163 in reply, and they stay bottom of the group as the competition now takes a two-week break.

Daily Mail​

2 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

Bettys loaf cake, beer snakes and polite applause are the perfect antidote to football's tribal toxicity: OLIVER HOLT spends a day basking in the cricket at Headingley

Summer started on a heavy, hot day in Leeds on Friday. It started with the morning sun glinting off the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and cricket supporters striding happily along the towpath through its Victoriana, past Granary Wharf and Monk Bridge Viaduct, towards the cathedral of Headingley, on the hill. It started with a bacon and sausage butty from Ugly Mugs Cafe on St Michael's Lane, opposite the ground, already busy more than two hours before the first ball of this Test summer was bowled, the summer that is a prelude to an Ashes winter in Australia, the summer when Bazball is being told to grow up or go home. Ugly Mugs is David Lloyd's pre-match eatery of choice and there is an item called Rob Burrow's Number 7 on the menu, in honour of one of Leeds' favourite sons. It is a place to watch the cricket walk by. 'You just missed Harry Brook,' one of the customers said to no one in particular, as he peered over the mountain of his full English from one of the outside tables. Queues had already started to form outside the gates. Signs pointed us to summer, too. They pointed to familiar, comforting names such as the Kirkstall Lane End. Inside, the great expanse of the Western Terrace lay empty and expectant and daunting, ready for its bacchanal. The nets were up on the outfield and there was the smack of ball on bat, and the buzz of broadcasters doing pieces to camera. Ben Stokes was on the front cover of the programme, with his collar turned up, and on the desks in the press room there were pieces of loaf cake from Bettys in Harrogate that had been 'steeped' in Yorkshire Tea. And Bumble was here now and Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain, broadcasters who have done so much to illustrate their game with colour and life and beauty and complexity. On the field, Stokes won the toss and said, 'We'll have a bowl', and the hum grew a little louder. Some looked up at the sky and saw it was blue and wondered at the wisdom of the decision. Others pointed out that the previous six Tests on this ground had all been won by the team bowling first. Music from a DJ booth called Punjabi Roots drifted over the ground. Yashasvi Jaiswal pushed the first ball of the day from Chris Woakes judiciously away, left the next four and then guided the final delivery through gully to the third man boundary for four. It was the start of a day of elegance and admiration. Jaiswal was a joy to watch. He gave a first hint of what was to come with a sumptuous drive through mid-off from the penultimate ball of Woakes's second over. Soon after, he carved Brydon Carse like a dish fit for the gods, viciously through point to the boundary. Soon, it started to feel as if maybe India were not going to miss Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma quite as much as everyone had thought. Jaiswal and KL Rahul drove and cut with majesty. Stokes offered some resistance, as Stokes always does. England's captain is never less than a force of nature and he removed India's debutant, Sai Sudharsan, for a duck with the last ball before lunch. It was only a brief reprieve. By mid-afternoon, as India began to accelerate away from their hosts, Stokes's decision to put them in started to excite comparisons with Hussain's decision to bowl against Australia at the Gabba in 2002. That didn't end well. On the evidence of the first day, at least, neither will this. But this is only the opening skirmish. Just the first day of summer. England were strong favourites to win this series before the start, so this was just the start this five-Test challenge needed. The first signs are that it will be a battle royal. The crowd seemed to recognise that, too. When Jaiswal was finally dismissed for 101, clean bowled by Stokes, after tea, the crowd crammed on to the Western Terrace — even those involved in the patient building of a gargantuan beer snake — stood to applaud him as he headed back towards the pavilion. That kind of generosity is not uncommon in cricket but after another season of football's endless toxicity and relentless tribalism, it still felt like a cool breeze in the stifling heat of the afternoon. It was not England's day but it was impossible not to appreciate the feast India were serving up. Nor did they relent. Shubman Gill, who some had expected to wilt under the pressure of being the new India captain, ended the day unbeaten on 127. He brought up his century with a stunning cover drive off the bowling of Josh Tongue. It was a sobering day for England's bowlers. Their attack looked light and ineffectual. Maybe Jofra Archer will be back for the second Test at Edgbaston. England need him. Mark Wood is sorely missed, too. His return will take longer. There was no flurry of wickets before stumps. Rishabh Pant took his turn to cut loose. He clubbed his second ball of the day back over Stokes's head for four. Stokes grinned broadly. Game recognised game. In the final overs, Pant hoiked a six high over the midwicket boundary off the bowling of Woakes, as India raced towards 359 for three at the close.