Hall back in the fold for Holland encounter

Hall replaces David Willey who is being rested, partly with Saturday’s trip to the Friends Life t20 finals day in mind and also because he has a slight shoulder injury.

Tuesday’s defeat of Kent kept alive the Steelbacks’ hopes of advancing to the last four and while head coach David Ripley knows that it is a game that also has to be won, he thinks that the bigger picture had to be looked at.

He said: “If it was a must-win game and in isolation then David would’ve played but we’ve got to be mindful that we’ve got a big day on Saturday.

“The shoulder issue has crept up on him a bit and he had some treatment before the Trent Bridge game but we’ve decided not to risk him.”

Both Hall and Rob Keogh have been named in the squad for the fixture but Ripley thinks that the call will fall on the side of the veteran all-rounder.

He continued: “The pitch, which is the same one we used against Kent, might spin a bit but there is a very short boundary on one side and it did nip about a bit under the lights later on.

“That could suit Andrew and it will probably be the way we choose to go.”

The victory on Tuesday was the result of an efficient performance which pleased Ripley considering the fact they had been poor against Nottinghamshire two days earlier.

He said: “Whenever we’ve had a bad game or result we’ve bounced back quickly and that’s been a highlight of the season.

“We can say the right things about taking it a game at a time and not thinking about Saturday but at Trent Bridge we definitely had a bit of a hangover from the Durham win.

“That seemed to have gone the other night and apart from the small part at the end we controlled the game and it was a very good performance.”

Steelbacks from: Wakely, Coetzer, White, Sales, Hall, Crook, Middlebrook, Spriegel, Daggett, Azharullah, Keogh, Stone, Murphy.