The Sky cameras are at Chester-le-Street on Friday night as Durham host Sussex in the quarter-finals of the Vitality T20 Blast and Richard Mann has taken a closer look at the tie.
Recommended bets: T20 Blast Quarter-Finals - Durham v Sussex
5pts Sussex to beat Durham at 8/11
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Durham have been one of the surprise packages of this year's T20 Blast and have been rewarded with a home quarter-final following a fine campaign to date which saw them finish second in the North Group.
Despite twice losing to Yorkshire in the early stages of the competition, Durham still won six of their opening eight matches and would only meet defeat to Worcestershire and Lancashire thereafter.
With New Zealand international Tom Latham leading a typically well-drilled unit, Durham have played with a mixture of confidence and street-smarts with the Kiwi, Graham Clark and the evergreen Paul Collingwood leading from the front with the bat.
South African veteran spinner Imran Tahir has enjoyed an excellent tournament - taking 15 wickets at a miserly economy of 6.34 - and has been ably supported by seamers Nathan Rimmington and Chris Rushworth but former has left to join the Caribbean Premier League now and leaves a huge void to be filled.
A well-oiled machine, there is no doubt that Durham will be a tough nut to crack on their home turf but for all their batting has been perfectly serviceable so far this year, it probably lacks star quality while Tahir apart, there is little to fear from the bowling.
As they have done for a number of years now, Durham will look to make up for their limitations by playing hard, streetwise cricket as a team.
Nevertheless, in Sussex, they face one of the best bowling attacks, if not the best, in the whole competition and Jason Gillespie looks to have his side peaking just at the right time.
Having raced out of the blocks in the early part of the competition - winning their first three games in frightening fashion - the Sharks needed to win their last three matches just to qualify for the last eight having suffered a host of washouts and a couple of narrow losses.
Sussex weren't perturbed, though, and it was telling that they produced their best cricket when needing it most, thumping Glamorgan and Gloucestershire before holding their nerve to see off Middlesex in a high-scoring affair at Hove which sealed their quarter-finals berth.
Key to their success has been their bowling attack which is as balanced as it is skilful. In Jofra Archer they have one of the hottest properties in world cricket right now - and the fastest bowler in the competition - while Tymal Mills has consistently exceeded 90mph and offers crucial left-arm variation. Chris Jordan and his wonderful death bowling remains a key part of England's T20 set-up while in Danny Briggs and Rashid Khan, they have a potent spin attack.
Khan's recall by the Afghanistan board is a big blow but William Beer stepped into his shoes admirably in the victory over Middlesex and the Sharks' bowling line-up still looks very strong indeed.
Even more encouraging for Sussex has been how their previously inconsistent batting has really clicked in recent weeks. Laurie Evans has enjoyed an excellent tournament so far and has 491 runs and counting while Philip Salt and Luke Wright have also started to fire lately.
Salt struck a blistering 66 from 25 balls against Middlesex and his 321 runs this year have come at an incredible strike-rate of 170.74.
With Wright renowned for being a destructive opening batsman and the lower order boasting plenty of power, it is hard to see Durham having enough tools in their armoury to stop a Sussex side with all bases seemingly covered and one that is peaking just at the right time.
8/11 about Sussex progressing to Finals Day looks worth taking.
Posted at 1000 BST on 21/08/18.
