Durham v Lancashire LV=County Championship (Day Two)

THE craziness of Twenty20 cricket was amply illustrated last night as Durham did a Devon Loch in falling in a heap with the winning line in sight.

They were cantering towards a modest target of 134 at home to Lancashire when they were 97 for three with six overs left.

But in the next two overs they squandered two wickets, added only three runs and succumbed to the pressure, losing by one run.

There were two occasions when Lancashire claimed to have prevented a four when it looked debatable, but Durham had only themselves to blame for falling short.

At the 14-over mark they were 32 runs ahead of Lancashire at the equivalent stage.

But the loss of both Paul Collingwood and Calum MacLeod after a stand of 48 dramatically turned the tables.

The Scot followed his unbeaten 80 in the opening win against Worcestershire by making an impressive 45, but his exit was another example of crazy cricket.

He stepped two feet outside off stump in an effort to turn Pakistani left-arm paceman Junaid Khan past short fine leg, but spooned a full toss into the fielder’s hands.

It was an untimely exit as Collingwood had pulled a catch to deep mid-wicket in the previous over and with two new men at the crease runs dried up and the pressure mounted.

Two more wickets went down and 15 were needed off the final over, bowled by the experienced Kabir Ali. Ryan Pringle drove the first ball through extra cover for four then came an inside edge, which was stopped just inside the rope and appeared to trickle on to it. The umpires queried it, but only three runs were awarded. settle for two from a straight drive, being denied his chance to atone for a nightmare second over which rescued Lancashire’s laboured innings.

There was an 11-over spell in mid-innings when they scored only in singles before they took 62 off the last five overs to reach 133 for six.

Man of the Match Karl Brown had scratched around for 37 balls in making 25 before hitting the first four balls of off-spinner Pringle’s second over for three sixes and a four.

He did it mainly through fetching what in proper cricket are good length balls from off stump over cow corner.

Brown then drove Chris Rushworth over long-on for his fourth six to reach 54 off 44 balls before falling for 61 in the final over when he drove the same bowler to long-off.

Until the late drama it appeared just as well Durham had laid on some surprise extra entertainment for a crowd of 3,397 as what had been dubbed Red Hot Thursday was struggling to live up to its billing.

An aerobatics display was all part of the attempt to promote the team as the Jets for this tournament and was provided by the Blades, based at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire.

As they are ex-Red Arrows men it fitted well with the evening’s theme and many of the crowd had responded to the request to emulate both teams by dressing in red.

But the 15-minute air display would have been a surprise to most in the absence of advance publicity. Given Durham’s financial position it seemed reasonable to ask who paid for it. Apparently it was the ECB.

Durham decided not to risk Mark Wood, so Usman Arshad bowled the second over and conceded only one run while having Alex Davies caught behind off an ugly attempt at a pull.

Left-hander Tom Smith clobbered two meaty fours and inside edged another off Ben Stokes before the England all-rounder bowled him with a beauty which pitched just outside leg stump and hit leg and middle. The wiles of experienced duo Collingwood and Gareth Breese strangled the middle of the Lancashire innings.

Breese, whose four overs cost only 11 runs, bowled just too short to invite the drive and when he dropped even shorter Paul Horton shaped to pull and fell lbw.

Collingwood had Steven Croft brilliantly caught by Gordon Muchall, running in from long-off, and on 71 for four after 15 overs Lancashire looked like struggling to top 100. Thanks to Brown they reached 133 for six.

Durham made a sprightly start, reaching 23 in the third over, but then slipped to 51 for three as Mark Stoneman was lbw to a skidder from Khan, Phil Mustard skied Kabir Ali to long-off and Stokes was bowled trying to reverse sweep off-spinner Arron Lilley.

MacLeod stepped inside a ball from Ali which would have hit middle stump to flip it to fine leg and also played the reverse sweep very effectively.

He hit some orthodox shots very hard to keep the board moving while Collingwood struggled to seven off 16 balls before hitting two successive balls from Ali for four.

At that point victory looked assured, but Collingwood departed for 19 and MacLeod fell to the first ball of the next over. Within the space of four balls the game had changed and Pringle’s bold effort at the end was in vain.

SCOREBOARD

At Emirates Durham ICG.

Lancashire
T C Smith b Stokes................................ 18
A L Davies c Mustard b Arshad............. 1
K R Brown c Muchall b Rushworth .... 61
P J Horton lbw b Breese ...................... 12
S J Croft c Muchall b Collingwood ...... 4
J Clark not out......................................... 27
A P Agathangelou c Arshad b
Rushworth.................................................. 0
A N Lilley not out ...................................... 0
Extras (lb6 w2 nb2).............10
Total 6 wkts (20 overs) .... 133
Fall: 1-8 2-27 3-45 4-54 5-127 6-130
Bowling: Rushworth 4-0-25-2. Arshad
3-0-19-1. Stokes 3-0-25-1. Breese 4-0-
11-1. Collingwood 4-0-18-1. Pringle 2-0-
29-0.

Durham
P Mustard c Smith b Kabir Ali ............. 17
M D Stoneman lbw b Junaid Khan ..... 12
C MacLeod c Clark b Junaid Khan ....45
B A Stokes b Lilley................................... 1
P D Collingwood c Lilley b Parry ........ 19
G J Muchall b Junaid Khan..................... 5
G R Breese b Croft ................................. 1
M J Richardson not out ......................... 12
R D Pringle not out ................................ 14
Extras (lb1 w3 nb2 pens 0) . 6
Total 7 wkts (20 overs) .... 132
Fall: 1-23 2-46 3-51 4-98 5-99 6-100
7-113
Bowling: Croft 4-0-25-1. Kabir Ali 4-0-42-
1. Junaid Khan 4-0-21-3. Clark 2-0-14-0.
Parry 4-0-16-1. Lilley 2-0-13-1.

Lancashire beat Durham by 1 runs