DURING Durham's record run of 11 seasons in division one of the championship they have never faced Gloucestershire in four-day cricket. Yet the home side will be firm favourites in this evening's NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final.

That doesn't worry Durham's Gordon Muchall, however, as he said: “In T20 anybody can have his day and win the game off his own bat. We have had a very positive mentality throughout the group games and will give it a good crack.

“I'm really looking forward to it. We haven't won a T20 quarter-final away from home, but when we have done well in one-day competitions we have hit form at the right time.”

As he approaches each game knowing it could be his last, Muchall has his sights on completing a full set of medals.

“I've got championship and one-day cup medals, so it would be good to complete the set,” he said.

“I played when Gareth Breese ended his career by hitting the winning runs in the 50-over final at Lord's two years ago and to bow out with something similar would be great.”

At 33, Muchall is ending his 14-year career to take up a post as head of boys' games at Bow School in Durham City.

Three of the four southern group qualifiers are second division clubs, underlining how four-day strugglers can flourish in the Blast.

Durham have never flourished in Twenty20 cricket. They have been to finals day once, after beating Glamorgan in the only home quarter-final they have staged. In the three away from home they have been soundly beaten at Canterbury, Southampton and Northampton.

The odds are also stacked against them because Gloucestershire had the best qualifying record with ten wins from 13 completed games, they have the competition's two highest run scorers in Michael Klinger (530) and Ian Cockbain (499), and the leading wicket-taker in Benny Howell (23).

Durham scraped through in fourth place in the north group and their leading run scorer is Phil Mustard with 290. But he is ineligible for the match under the terms of his loan to Gloucester.

They signed him because of an injury to Gareth Roderick and will now have to call on academy wicketkeeper Patrick Grieshaber. Otherwise they have an experienced, well-balanced one-day side, even though they have made a hash of their defence of the Royal London Cup.

They beat Durham by 71 runs in the 50-over event at Bristol last year after Klinger scored an unbeaten 135.

The 36-year-old opener played against Durham at Riverside in 2102 for an Australia A team in which only Mitchell Starc went on to make an impact at Test level.

Another Australian in the home side is paceman Andrew Tye, who made a few appearances for Durham seconds while playing for Chester-le-Street. He has gone on to play in three T20 internationals.

At 37, batsman Hamish Marshall has decided to end his 11-year stay at Bristol at the end of the season. He played in 13 Tests for New Zealand but has an Irish passport.

Along with Tye and medium pacer Howell, the attack includes left-arm seamer Matt Taylor and two left-arm spinners in Tom Smith and South African Graeme van Buuren.

Durham hope to have Paul Collingwood fit after his calf injury, while Mark Wood's availability will force them to make a choice between Paul Coughlin and Usman Arshad.

Durham (from): P D Collingwood (capt), M D Stoneman, K K Jennings, C S MacLeod, G J Muchall, M J Richardson, R D Pringle, S D Poynter, P Coughlin, U Arshad, M A Wood, C Rushworth