DURHAM aim to make sure Friday night is dynamite as they seek bumper crowds to boost finances and cheer them into the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-finals.

Tonight's visit of Northamptonshire Steelbacks kicks off a run of three successive Friday fixtures at Emirates Riverside and if Durham maintain their unbeaten home run they will go through.

The only other remaining group game is at Headingley on Wednesday against a Yorkshire side who are on the same number of points.

Durham are hoping for a repeat of Sunday's performance in a five-wicket win against Leicestershire, which took them into the fourth qualifying place in the north group.

They will again be able to call on Ben Stokes and Mark Wood, and Stokes has been given the all-clear to bowl following his knee operation.

After four days off, Durham are back into a hectic schedule which will see them depart after the match for Southport, where they start the championship match against Lancashire tomorrow.

They have been granted a noon start on the first day, and coach Jon Lewis shrugged off suggestions that tonight's match could have started earlier than 6.30.

“There would be no point in having the floodlights if we did that,” he said. “The idea is to give people more time to get to the match after work.

“They are excellent lights, much better than those installed at grounds in the early days of floodlit cricket. They look spectacular once it gets dark.”

Chris Rushworth said: “It's a great place to play and the crowds are improving. We hope they keep getting behind us and if we can put on a show we will pull in even more. If we reach the quarter-finals anything can happen.”

After struggling for rhythm at the start of the season Rushworth has been in good form recently and is one of the competition's most economical bowlers. He would have started Sunday's match with a maiden had he not over-stepped on the last ball.

“If you bowl a good first over it sets the tone,” he said. “Bowling at the death is different because you can bowl your best ball five times out of six and still get hit for 20 with all the ramps and sweeps.

“I like to have a clear plan and stick to it. I know if I hit my areas the batsman is going to have to do something special. Lewis Hill managed to do that on Sunday, but I was happy with the way I executed.”

Northants are joint group leaders with Nottinghamshire but have four tough games left, including resurgent Yorkshire home and away.

They lost a championship game by 311 runs at Worcester this week and Rushworth said: “They seem to throw all their eggs into the T20 basket. But coming here, with our big boundaries, takes teams out of their comfort zone. We have beaten Northants on their last three visits.”

In last month's 26-run defeat at Northampton, Durham collapsed to nine for four against the bowling of Yorkshire reject Moin Ashraf and Richard Gleeson, a 28-year-old seamer plucked from Minor Counties cricket with Cumberland. He has the highest proportion of dot balls in this season's T20 competition at 62 per cent.

“Paul Coughlin took a triple wicket maiden in the last over at their place, but it got overlooked because of our batting performance,” said Lewis.

“There was a bit of a shower between innings. It seemed to give the pitch a bit more zip and we didn't adjust well.

“Our batting has been the major reason why we haven't won a couple more games.

“We have tinkered a little bit with the order but we have tried to give a pattern to the top four or five. Batsmen need to make brave choices and it would not be good for them to think they were going to be axed if they made the wrong one.”

*Durham lost by eight runs to Middlesex in the semi-final of the Second X1 T20 competition at Arundel yesterday. In reply to 199 for five they made 191 for six with Gordon Muchall unbeaten on 56. Calum MacLeod made 51 off 31 balls and Phil Mustard 34 off 17.