Durham Jets' Mark Wood hopes his debut Finals Day ends with maiden T20 Blast title

Wood is looking to round-off a perfect week with victory at Edgbaston after he was called up to the England ODI squad alongside team-mate Ben Stokes.

After playing a starring role in the quarter final victory at Gloucestershire, Wood will be looking for a repeat performance when Durham face Yorkshire in the semi-final.

And Wood says he will relish the opportunity to show what he’s made of in what is his first trip to Finals Day.

“I’ve never been to Finals Day myself so that’s an added incentive to show my skills there,” he said.

“I’ve just been picked in the England One Day side so I’ve got to prove that the selectors have made the right choice.

“For the North East in general it’s a huge occasion.

“We’ve never won this competition before so if we can take plenty of supporters down they’ll cheer us on and hopefully we can get the right result.

“It’s Gordon Muchall’s last year at Durham so hopefully we can send him off in style with a win and a trophy.”

The Jets have reached Finals Day only once in their history - back in 2008 - and Wood believes that with the backing of the fans Durham will be able to prove a point.

“I don’t think we’ve ever done ourselves justice in this competition.

“We’ve always had a hugely talented squad but for one reason or another we’ve struggled to make Finals Day.

“But now it’s time to do the business and hopefully the North-East rally behind us.

“The support after the Gloucestershire game was phenomenal and hopefully we can get the same against Yorkshire.”

His Head Coach, Jon Lewis, echoed the belief that Durham have somewhat underperformed in the T20 competition in the past but knows that a vocal travelling support will help his side at Edgbaston.

“It’s the only competition we haven’t had an impact on in the last few years,” said Lewis.

“We’ve sold all our tickets and we probably could have sold them two or three times over.

“It’s going to be a full crowd and it’s probably one of the days you live for as a county cricketer.

“You don’t often get the chance to play in front of 20,000 people.

“Being in the second game means everyone will be there so we’ll be playing in front of a packed crowd.

And the Head Coach message to his side is simple - enjoy it.

“They’ve got to enjoy it,” added Lewis.

“We’ll stay aggressive and commit to everything we do.

“The regular feature we’ve had throughout this competition has been sticking to those

principles.

“You don’t want to die wondering, you want to go out there and win.”