Shurben Set For Big Day Out

Northumberland’s first appearance in a NCCA Dojo T20 Finals Day has been five years in the making rather than an overnight success.

It is 10 years since Northumberland made their last appearance in a showcase event when they were beaten by Cornwall in the final of the National Counties Trophy at Wormsley and 19 since they won their only major honour when they beat Dorset in the Trophy final at Lord’s.

Northumberland will be back at Wormsley on Sunday with Dorset again their opponents but this time for a semi-final of the T20 competition with the winners facing either Oxfordshire or Norfolk, who meet in the opening semi-final, in the final later in the day.

Northumberland will be considered outsiders by many, particularly as Dorset have already won the Trophy this season, but they showed when they defeated hosts Cambridgeshire and Cumbria in their Super-12s event at Sawston earlier this month that they should not be under-estimated.

Northumberland narrowly failed to beat Shropshire in their Trophy quarter-final at Shifnal and, having gone top of the Eastern Division Two of the NCCA Cluberly Championship with a 33 runs victory over Cumbria at Penrith on Tuesday, they will head to Wormsley on a run of four straights wins in all cricket.

“We are having a good season and everything we have been working towards for the last five or six years is finally coming together,” said Northumberland Head Coach Dan Shurben.

“We have had a pretty good, solid year where we qualified out of the 50 overs group, we have done well in the T20s and we have won two out of three Championship games. It’s nice to be in a position where the season is coming to and end and we still have plenty to play for.

“I don’t think we have exceeded expectations knowing the quality of the players we have got in the group. The biggest difference this year is that we have had a more settled group of players who have played across the three formats.

“There are seven or eight lads who have played the majority of not all of them. That makes it easier and shows their skill level when they are performing well across all the three formats.

“We are absolutely buzzing for Sunday. I have played in good teams before where you get yourself on a roll. We pulled a win out of the bag against Cumbria on Tuesday having won comprehensively the week before and having won twice in the Super12s the week before that.

“We are meeting on Saturday night and travelling down on a coach so that nobody has to drive. We have spent a lot of time in our cars on Saturday nights this season so it will be really nice for the lads to spend a bit of time together, chill out and then get to Wormsley to watch Oxfordshire and Norfolk play before our match at quarter-past one.”

Northumberland’s squad includes four former Durham players – Harry Crawshaw, Ross Whitfield, Sol Bell and Jonny Bushnell – plus powerhouse batters John Oswell and Alasdair Appleby, whose match-winning partnership against Cumbria in the Super 12s booked their trip to Wormsley.

“They are very destructive batters and one of the key components of our team is when we use John and when he comes in to bat. In the past John and Ali have gone in together but we have lacked a bit of power at the back end of an innings which is why we changed the role that John has across all three formats,” Shurben said.

“He got a fantastic century in the Trophy quarter-final at Shifnal, he got a brilliant hunred at Peterborough against Cambridgeshire where he went in at the right time and set the foundations.

“He’s very much a key part of the team but we have Ross, Harry and Jonny and also Chris Youldon who won us the game against Cambridgeshire. So, we have lads with different skill sets who can perform different roles and hit the balls in different areas.”

Slow left-armer Joe Stuart has also become an important part of Northumberland’s success having taken 30 wickets in ten matches across all formats since he made his debut in the Trophy quarter-final.

“I have known Joe for a long time. We played together at Sunderland until the back end of last year when he moved across to Newcastle because he wanted to play for Northumberland,” Shurben said.

“He said he wanted to get in the team, he thought he was good enough and I said he could achieve that a lot easier by playing for a club in Northumberland.

“He’s done that and he’s bowled brilliantly in the Championship and he was also our most economical bowler in the Super 12s at Cambridgeshire.

“I’ve always known that he’s a pretty good bowler. He bowls a lot at the stumps and over the last two days, in the Championship match against Cumbria, I don’t think he bowled a ball that the batters could leave.

“He’s always in the game, he’s always attacking off stump and he’s bowled beautifully since he came into the team. He’s in the group because he has now become one of our eight local players.”

Shurben admits that Dorset will be an unknown quantity as the semi-final will be only the second time the counties have played each other – the first being the 2006 Trophy final at Lord’s when he was a member of the wining team.

“We don’t too much about them but they have obviously had a fairly successful white ball campaign having won the 50 over competition,” he said.

“We don’t play them so we don’t know much about them but we are going to use that as a positive. We feel that we have got a strong group that can do well. It’s a T20 game where anything captain.

“They won’t know much about us either. It will be who holds their nerve and which players can influence the game the most in such a short space of time.”

Whatever happens at Wormsley, Northumberland still have a promotion-deciding Championship match against Bedfordshire to come and Shurben will be able to reflect with justifiable pride on the county’s best season for almost 20 years.

“We have under-achieved in the last couple of years. We got out of the group of the 50 overs competition for the first time in a long time a couple of years ago but then fell at the quarter-final stage,” he said.

“We showed signs last year but there was always a little chink of light shining but then there was a disappointment around the corner. So I was disappointed with how things panned out last year on the whole.

“But this year we have gained a bit of momentum, we’ve had a settled side and lads have won us games across the formats. So, it’s a case of trying to roll that on.

“After Sunday we have got a big three-day game where we are top of the group and it’s in our hands as to what happens. Our two biggest games coming up right at the end of the season which is great for us.

“We have been there when you get to the end of a season and you are not playing for anything and you have long trips. We have had lads who are extremely committed – every person in my role with other counties will say the same thing – the lads that have played all three formats the commitment level and the time and effort they put into paying National Counties cricket is more than it was 15 years ago when I was playing.

“This will be the 14th Sunday we have played on this year with another to come. For at least half the time, our lads are travelling three, four, five hours after playing a day’s cricket for their clubs

“The success is not solely down to the commitment levels but it certainly helps when you have got lads that want to play and want to do well and play for each other. Which is what we have seen in the last three weeks especially. The team spirit and togetherness has really shone through. You put a bit of quality on top of that and you are on to a winner

Pre-booked tickets for NCCA DOJO T20 Finals Day cost £12 and can be purchased here: T20 Finals Day 2025 | National Counties Cricket Association

Tickets will cost £14 on the day. Children go free.

NCCA Dojo T20 Finals Day

Sunday August 24

Wormsley

Semi-finals: Oxfordshire v Norfolk (10am), Northumberland v Dorset (1.15pm).

Final at 4.30pm

📸 Wormsley