DURHAM have yet to light the blue touch paper in their NatWest T20 Blast campaign and stuttered to their fifth defeat from five in a depressingly one-sided contest at home to Nottinghamshire last night.

Without a dramatic improvement, or help from the weather, a sixth will surely follow at Headingley this evening.

The inexperience of Durham's line-up was all too obvious as they chose to bat and were all out for 123. The fact that 11 balls were unused was a damning indictment.

Victory was a formality for the powerful Nottinghamshire line-up and they coasted home by nine wickets with four overs to spare.

Durham asked debut boy Liam Trevaskis to bowl the first over and Alex Hales hit the left-arm spinner for two fours as 11 runs allowed the visitors to make a comfortable start.

Any chance of a contest had looked remote from the moment Durham slipped to eight for two after ten balls. But they were briefly revived by Graham Clark, who made a pugnacious 41 off 27 balls before, to his evident surprise, he was given out caught behind.

Cameron Steel cut the first ball of the match, from left-arm spinner Samit Patel, for an exquisite four. But after adding two singles he lifted left-arm seamer Luke Wood's first ball to extra cover.

Paul Collingwood was moved up to No 3, but the experiment flopped as he fell for nought, skying a pull off Wood to give backward square leg an easy catch.

The recalled Michael Richardson contributed nine to a stand of 46 with Clark, only to get out straight after his partner took 15 off the first five balls of a Jake Ball over.

Clark cut, pulled and drove three fours, added a two and one, then Richardson bottom-edged the sixth ball into his stumps attempting a pull.

Patel was recalled and picked up the next three wickets, starting when Clark was adjudged to have edged a waft to leg.

Jack Burnham made seven before a fierce drive to extra cover was well held above his head by Dan Christian then Stuart Poynter played all round Patel's next ball.

At 65 for six in the ninth over, Paul Coughlin and Ryan Pringle could afford few risks but did very well to add 39 before Pringle pulled Steven Mullaney straight to deep backward square.

That was off the first ball of the 14th and after three dot balls Trevaskis cut a powerful four for the only runs of the over.

Four singles and a leg bye came off the next, bowled by New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Dodi, and with the pressure mounting Trevaskis called for a quick single and Mullaney's sharp fielding off his own bowling ran out Coughlin for 23.

A misfield by Hales, to the biggest cheer of the night, allowed Trevaskis a second four on his way to an unbeaten 13. But Barry McCarthy was very smartly stumped by Tom Moores off Sodi and Chris Rushworth lofted a catch to mid-off.

Coughlin's woes were magnified when he replaced Trevaskis to bowl the third over and Hales twice drove him straight down the ground as 15 came off the over.

Hales set about finishing it as quickly as possible, but after making 44 off 22 balls he went down the pitch to Trevaskis and was bowled.

There were already 69 on the board after seven overs, leaving Riki Wessels (49) and Brendan Taylor (33) with a simple task. Taylor completed the job by lifting Pringle for six over long-on.

*Durham batsman Cameron Steel has been awarded a full contract until the end of the 2019 season. The former Durham University captain started this season on a development contract and has impressed in all formats, scoring a maiden first-class century against Northamptonshire in June.

He averages 35.7 in the championship and coach Jon Lewis said: “He’s demonstrated real talent and contributed well in both the red and white ball format.

“He’s a good character to have in the dressing room and has benefited greatly from a good run in the team. His improvement with the bat has been extremely pleasing and we’re keen to develop his role as a leg spinning all-rounder.”