DURHAM will almost certainly have to win all three of their remaining games in the Vitality Blast to have any chance of making the quarter-finals – but their head coach, Ryan Campbell, remains convinced they are not far off being off a top-class T20 team.

Durham’s hopes of making the knockout stages of the competition suffered a major blow on Tuesday evening when they suffered a two-wicket defeat to Birmingham Bears at Seat Unique Riverside.

The home side’s score of 146-6 always looked short of what was required, but the game was thrust back in the balance when Birmingham collapsed from a comfortable 80-1 to 133-8. However, Jacob Bethell smashed a six and a four from the final over to guide the visitors to victory.

Durham’s defeat means they are eighth in the northern section of the Vitality Blast table, with only the top four sides qualifying for the quarter-finals. However, while Birmingham and Nottinghamshire look well-placed in joint top-spot, the remaining places are up for grabs with Durham within three points of third-placed Worcestershire.

They are not out yet, although they cannot really afford any more slip-ups in their remaining group matches. Durham host Yorkshire at Chester-le-Street on Friday evening before rounding off their group campaign with away games at Worcestershire and Birmingham next week.

Campbell has been reasonably pleased with his players’ efforts in this season’s T20, but does not want them to be looking back at the end of the competition with a sense of regret.

“I don’t want to look back on our season and say, what if,” he said. “Our T20 campaign has had a lot of that.

“We have to get better and go back to the drawing board. We’ve got to help these players improve and teach them how to become a really good T20 player because it’s hard.

“That’s my job. It’s a tough game to master, but if we can find that, I reckon we’re not too far off the mark of becoming a really good T20 team.”

Campbell praised Ashton Turner and Ollie Robinson for their efforts with the bat on Tuesday, with the pair scoring half-centuries as Durham recovered from a slow start to post a total that at least gave them a chance. However, the subsequent failure to take a single wicket in the opening eight overs of Birmingham’s reply ultimately proved decisive.

“You can't fault the character of the team, which is pleasing from my point of view,” said Campbell. “They bowled very nicely up front and Hassan Ali nipped it around. He made the most of the conditions and made it very tough.

“We never quite recovered. Ashton Turner and Ollie Robinson put a score on the board, but even Birmingham's fielding prevented at least 12 runs, those would have been handy.

“Hats off to them for their fielding and the way they played. It's disappointing that we didn't bring our A game in those first ten to 12 overs of our bowling innings.”