DURHAM'S run of Royal London Cup wins hit the buffers yesterday when a sub-standard batting display brought a 49-run home defeat by resurgent Surrey.

The teams went into the match as joint leaders of Group A, but after fighting back in the field to restrict the visitors to 271 for seven, Durham slumped to 222 all out.

The worst of the damage was done by the unheralded James Burke, a 24-year-old seam bowling all-rounder from Plymouth who has played only five first-class games and failed to make the grade with Somerset.

Coming on as the third rookie in the visiting attack, he struck three times in his first five overs. He had Graham Clark lbw for a duck, clean bowled Paul Collingwood and had Gordon Muchall caught behind with another good one.

The three other members of the top six self-destructed. Both openers unerringly picked out fielders on the leg-side boundary when well set, while Scott Borthwick was lbw for 27 when trying to sweep Gareth Batty.

It became 164 for eight before they sent in the big-hitting John Hastings, whose 31 off 27 balls was in vain as they were all out in the 47th over.

Durham had looked slight favourites after tightening up impressively with the ball after coming under early fire from the Surrey openers.

Let-hander Steve Davies had to throttle back in an attempt to hold the innings together.

After making 99 in the crushing win against Northants on Tuesday, he fell for 98 when he was stumped off Ryan Pringle as Durham's spinners found some rare Riverside turn.

The opening stand of 78 inside 12 overs suggested Surrey could comfortably top 300, but Collingwood, who was sparingly used in the first two matches, stemmed the initial onslaught after his first over cost ten.

He removed the dangerous Jason Roy for 34 then had Kumar Sangakkara caught behind for three – the first of four victims for Phil Mustard - and went on to finish with 10-0-44-2.

Borthwick also bowled ten overs. His first cost eight and the last 12 but he bowled well inbetween to take one for 52.

Durham went for the extra batsman by recalling Keaton Jennings in place of Jamie Harrison and chose to bowl in cloudy conditions.

With John Hastings and Chris Rushworth opening up, they wanted early wickets but after four overs the total was 32.

With the ball reluctant to swing on a chilly morning, any error in length was punished by Davies and Roy. After seven overs Mark Stoneman's initial gamble on spin, with only two men outside the ring during the powerplay, was not a success as three fours came off Pringle's over.

The breakthrough came when Roy tried to sweep Collingwood from outside off stump and got a bottom edge into his stumps.

Collingwood then swung one away to find the edge of Sangakkara's bat, but while Rushworth troubled Davies in his second spell his wickets have dried up for the moment.

Usman Arshad struck the next blow when England Lions wicketkeeper Ben Foakes edged a drive and Borthwick held a very sharp chance in a short gully position.

That brought in Irishman Gary Wilson, the fourth wicketkeeper in Surrey's top five, and when Borthwick came on a four pulled by Davies proved to be the last boundary for 17 overs.

With Borthwick posing problems Wilson went down the pitch and edged the spinner to Mustard, who whipped off the bails for good measure.

It went down as caught, but Mustard had his stumping when Pringle returned and turned one past the advancing Davies. He faced 109 balls for his 98 and added only three fours to the five each which he and Roy hit in the first ten overs.

Burke broke the boundary famine by swinging Pringle over mid-wicket for six in the 43rd but Hastings returned to have Burke caught behind attempting to hook a slow bouncer.

Left-hander Zafar Ansari made a useful 41 before he stepped across to flick Rushworth behind square and lost his off stump.

That left the Curran brothers to gather 20 off the last two overs with Tom flat-batting Rushworth back over his head for six on his way to 26 off 19 balls.

Durham reached 21 after five overs of the reply then all but doubled the score off the sixth. Stoneman hit three fours and a pulled six off 17-year-old left-armer Sam Curran's third over, which also included a wide.

But the next 16 balls failed to produce a run and it was a further ten overs before Durham found the boundary again.

Tom Curran replaced his brother and opened up with a wicket maiden as Stoneman missed one attempted pull before picking out deep mid-wicket to depart for 31.

Mustard blocked out an over from Jade Dernbach and hit his only four in the 16th over, straight driving Gareth Batty's off spin. But two overs later he fell for 25 when he top-edged a sweep off Batty straight to long leg, then Graham Clark failed to celebrate his contract as he shuffled into a straight one from Burke.

The tall seamer nipped one back to breach Collingwood's forward push and take out his leg stump.

Borthwick, well set on 27, needed to take responsibility for building the recovery. But in the next over he tried to sweep Batty and was lbw, making it 102 for five and good contributions from Pringle, Arshad and Hastings never really threatened to get Durham close.