Raine looks forward to clash with old team

Ben Raine will see a few familiar faces when he takes on former club Durham Jets in the NatWest T20 Blast tomorrow evening (5.30pm)  - but he’ll have to wait until another time to catch up with a couple of his pals.

The all-rounder knows Ben Stokes and Mark Wood well, and he, like the rest of the nation, enjoyed watching their outstanding performances for England at Lord’s. The duo are again on international duty with the second Investec test match against New Zealand starting at Headingley on Friday.

Raine spent last winter in New Zealand and also got to know Tom Latham and Matt Henry during his time there. The 23-year-old said he was pleased to see all four players perform well, including Stokes, who he calls an “exceptional talent”.

He said: “I spent a lot of time in New Zealand this winter and it was strange to watch the test match in some ways as four of my close friends played, including Mark Wood and Matt Henry, who were making their test match debuts for opposite teams! All four had good games including Tom Latham, who got a 50 in the first innings.

“Ben Stokes showed exactly what he is capable of. He is an exceptional batsman – I’d say he’s the best I have ever played with. He’s very useful as a bowler and a proven wicket taker but his main strength is batting and he proved that beyond end in this test. It’s nice to see Ben doing well as he’s an exceptional talent. He is going to be a great player.”

Raine said that although it is always weird to take on your former side, it will be business as usual as the Foxes look to make it back-to-back wins against Durham Jets tomorrow and Worcestershire Rapids at New Road on Friday (5.30pm).

He said: “I’ve still got a lot of friends at Durham and it’s always interesting to play against your old team but we got two wins against them last year in two good games of cricket.

 “They have a lot of good players and they’re a team that doesn’t change a lot. There are still people there from when I was at Durham and they have players my age who have developed well, which is good to see as they’re friends of mine. Hopefully they won’t do well against us though!”

“Derbyshire was an excellent win, it was good to get a calm and demanding victory at home after being on the wrong end of a tight one at Lancashire. If you can sneak two wins in a week you can usually leap up the table, which is always useful at this point.

“It’s a good opportunity this week with back-to-back games. We want to get through to the next round and if we can start this tournament with three wins from four, that would be great.”

Raine is part of a 14-man squad for the Jets visit, with James Sykes, Neil Pinner and Charlie Shreck joining the XI on duty from the Derbyshire win.

SQUAD | Cosgrove (capt), N O’Brien (wk), Eckersley, K O’Brien, Elliott, Wells, Pinner, Raine, McKay, Taylor, Naik, Sykes, Sheikh, Shreck.