Double defeat for Durham makes it a miserable weekend away

MERCIFULLY, perhaps, a free week now gives Durham an opportunity to clear their heads after a miserable weekend in the Midlands.

Two defeats, dismally against Warwickshire and then in a bitter late twist against Worcestershire, seriously damaged their chances in the lottery of NatWest T20 Blast cricket.

To add to the disappointment, Paul Collingwood became the latest player to be caught up in the county’s run of injuries.

Although his absence at New Road on Saturday was said to be a “precautionary”

measure, he was clearly in a lot of pain when struck on the right index finger during his final over at Edgbaston on Friday.

The defeat at Worcester – in a rain-reduced 13-overs-aside match – was particularly hard to take after a muchimproved performance.

With three overs to go, victory was in Durham’s grasp but a change of emphasis cost them a double over Worcestershire, having comfortably won the home meeting last month.

“They possibly went away from their plan,” said New Road director of cricket, Steve Rhodes. “They were bowling cutters into the wicket, which were effective, but they tried to go for yorkers and bowled a few full tosses.”

The strategy was seen through by Usman Arshad, starting with nine dot balls and never conceding more than a single in three overs for ten runs.

“He did fantastically well,”

said skipper Mark Stoneman but sadly for Durham it wasn’t enough to counter the carnage inflicted on two partners.

With one no-ball from John Hastings – which resulted in a six from the free hit – the last 11 deliveries from the Diglis End cost 36 runs.

When Chris Rushworth was given the ball for the final over, Worcestershire still needed 15 – and even that represented a lifeline, according to Rhodes.

“In many ways,” he said, “we were happy to be in a position where we could still win the game. We were struggling for the large majority of it.”

In the event it was Rushworth’s misfortune that the home side had two of their cleanest hitters, both left handers, on strike when the pace bowler overpitched, Gareth Andrew, returning after a month off through injury, hit the two first two balls for six and four but then gave Ben Stokes his third catch of the innings in trying to clear long on.

With the batsmen crossing, no harm was done for Worcestershire with Whiteley in place to smash his third six and take the man of the match prize for his 25 from 14 balls.

The fine margins in the competition were such that the victors went to the top of the North Group but if Durham had held on, the teams would have been level on six points.

In this context Stoneman was perhaps justified in saying: “A couple of wins would put us back up there.

It’s not all doom and gloom.”

In fact much of the performance was too good for the team to be written off because of two bad overs at the death.

When Durham batted first after losing the toss, Stoneman and Phil Mustard fell to the first two balls from Chris Russell but a worrying start was quickly overridden by the impressive Calum MacLeod.

Adding an unbeaten 43 to an earlier 80 not out against Worcestershire, he has made 208 runs in the competition at an average of 69.33.

Stokes briefly overshadowed the Scot with a brisk 24 until caught at long on from Colin Munro’s first delivery, but MacLeod then took over with three sixes while putting on 72 with Gordon Muchall.

Durham’s 105 for three should have been a winning total.

SCOREBOARD

At New Road.

Durham
M D Stoneman c Kervezee b Russell .. 2
P Mustard c Cox b Russell .................... 3
C S MacLeod not out ............................43
B A Stokes c Andrew b Munro............ 24
G J Muchall not out................................30
Extras (lb2 w1) ....................... 3
Total 3 wkts (13 overs) .... 105
Fall: 1-5 2-5 3-33
Bowling: Shantry 3-0-31-0. Russell 3-0-
24-2. Ajmal 3-0-14-0. Mitchell 2-0-19-0.
Munro 2-0-15-1.

Worcestershire
R K Oliver c Stokes b Arshad................ 8
D K Mitchell c Stokes b Hastings......... 1
T Kohler-Cadmore lbw b Hastings .....32
C Munro c Arshad b Hastings............. 11
R A Whiteley not out..............................25
G M Andrew c Stokes b Rushworth ..20
O B Cox not out........................................ 0
Extras (lb4 w2 nb4).............10
Total 5 wkts (12.4 overs)..107
Fall: 1-8 2-24 3-58 4-58 5-101
Bowling: Rushworth 2.4-0-33-1. Hastings
3-0-31-3. Arshad 3-1-10-1. Jennings 2-0-
13-0. Breese 2-0-16-0.

Worcs beat Durham by 5 wkts