Benkenstein sees Durham home to first Twenty20 win

IT mattered not to the 6,500 Mexican wavers at Riverside last night that they had heard of hardly any of the Lancashire players on view.

A Durham win seemed to be written firmly on the red cards the fans had been encouraged to wave every time a four or six was struck. And so it proved as a superb unbeaten 56 by skipper Dale Benkenstein, which included four sixes, saw them home by six wickets with four balls to spare.

After heavy away defeats in their first two Twenty20 Cup matches, Durham had pegged back Lancashire following a runaway start and restricted them to 135 for nine.

With Tom Smith and Gary Keedy the only regulars in the visiting attack it was a golden opportunity for Durham to open their account.

But after losing Gordon Muchall in the second over they seemed to decide that caution was required, and the Mexican wave quickly gave way to anxiety among both batsmen and spectators.

There is little room for caution in Twenty20 and when Durham decided they had better get on with it they gave away two more wickets and were struggling at 29 for three after seven overs.

The next two overs yielded 12 runs before Phil Mustard, who had been sensibly pushing the ball into space and scampering ones and twos, pulled an enormous six almost into a hospitality box.

The target was down to 68 off eight overs when Benkenstein went down the pitch and drove Keedy over long-off for six.

But the game was back in the balance in the next over, when Mustard was caught on the mid-wicket boundary for 38.

With Gary Pratt joining Benkenstein and Nathan Astle continuing to bowl tightly the run rate dropped and 41 were needed off four overs when the captain smashed successive balls from leg-spinner Simon Marshall over long-on.

A single followed then Pratt drove a lovely four through extra cover as 19 came off the over. A good final over from Astle made the target 15 off two, but Benkenstein's fourth six over long-on helped get it down to one off the final over and he drove the second ball for four, leaving Pratt unbeaten on 21.

There was all the fun of the fair at Riverside, and with the ground's record Twenty20 crowd guaranteed following the advance sale of 6,500 tickets the stadium was already buzzing 90 minutes before the start.

At that time the billing of the match as Dynamos v Lightning looked quite appropriate with a storm brewing nearby, but fortunately it passed and the light was good when Lancashire chose to bat.

Durham gave an unchanged side a chance to redeem themselves, while Lancashire were lacking seven of the team which beat Durham in the C & G Trophy.

Apart from being without Brad Hodge, Glen Chapple and Sajid Mahmood, they also had to rule out Mal Loye following a back spasm, Dominic Cork with a thigh strain, Kyle Hogg with a back problem and wicketkeeper Luke Sutton with a broken thumb.

Leg-spinner Simon Marshall did play in the C & G match, when he was due to bat at No 9, but he was sent in to open with Stuart Law last night.

Cheshire-born Marshall, a Cambridge graduate, soon began to justify the decision, although he would have been run out for nine had Dale Benkenstein hit the stumps from mid-on.

Later in the fourth over Marshall walloped a Neil Killeen slower ball for six over cow corner, then took three fours off Killeen's next over.

One of them was edged and another just cleared mid-on, although it was probably still rising as he hit it powerfully on the up.

With Nathan Astle providing steady support, Marshall swiftly made up for the early loss of Law, who cut Killeen straight to Gary Pratt at point in the second over.

Killeen had been out of luck a couple of balls earlier when he cut one back sharply and it beat both the batsman and Phil Mustard, who was standing up, to go for four byes.

From 11 for one after two overs Lancashire accelerated to 68 after seven overs, when left-arm spinner Graeme Bridge was introduced earlier than in the previous matches.

Astle cut his first ball for four, but only three more came off the over and in the next over Marshall was run out for 47. Astle played the ball to mid-wicket and sent back Marshall, who was beaten at the non-striker's end by Gareth Breese's direct hit, which changed the game.

That brought in Bury-born reserve wicketkeeper Gareth Cross, who made only one before missing an in-swinger in Benkenstein's first over to be lbw.

With skipper Mark Chilton, normally a solid opener, coming in next it seemed the only remaining danger to Durham was Astle, the big-hitting New Zealander who was only a partial success in his brief stint at Riverside last season.

But he departed for 24 in the next over, driving a sharp fierce catch which Bridge did well to hold away to his right.

In Bridge's next over all-rounder Steven Croft, from Blackpool, lofted a catch to Killeen at long-off to make it 100 for five in the 14th over.

Then Paul Horton tried to paddle Benkenstein behind square, only to find he had picked the wrong ball as it virtually yorked him on middle and leg.

Breese replaced Bridge, who took two for 16 in his four overs, and when Tom Smith played the third ball to mid-wicket and set off for a suicidal run Chilton would have none of it and Smith had no chance of beating Benkenstein's throw.

There was a third run out when Chilton also sent back Tom Smith, who played the first ball of the last over to gully. But left-hander Gary Keedy swung Breese's next ball high over the square leg boundary as 11 runs came off the remainder of the over.

It was the most productive over since the seventh and made Durham's task that bit more difficult, especially when their only successful batsman in the first two games, Muchall, fell in the second over of their reply for five.

He tried to pull Smith and was adjudged to have gloved a leg-side catch to wicketkeeper Cross, and the pressure grew as Maher scored only one off his first 15 balls before driving a four over mid-on.

He departed when he sliced another attempted drive to third man, then Gary Scott was well caught at long-on. But Benkenstein had all the answers.