Last ball agony for Durham after suffering another group defeat

9:19am Monday 5th May 2008

Lancashire v Durham (Friends Provident Trophy)

DURHAM need to complete a Friends Provident double over Yorkshire at Headingley today, otherwise their defence of the trophy will lie in ruins.

Following the controversial one-run defeat at Derby on Friday night, conditions again conspired against Durham at Old Trafford yesterday and they lost by five wickets off the last ball.

Steven Croft needed to hit it for six and obliged by easily clearing the rope over extra cover off Graham Onions.

Dale Benkenstein again lost the toss in a match reduced to 23 overs a side, and with Paul Collingwood falling first ball and Phil Mustard for five Durham looked like struggling to muster a competitive total.

That they reached 151 for seven owed everything to Benkenstein contributing 40 to a stand of 61 in eight overs with Michael Di Venuto.

The Tasmanian went on to make 66, his highest one-day score for Durham, before having his stumps rattled in the 22nd over by Andrew Flintoff.

While bowling well, Flintoff has been short of runs and Durham were still in the game when he arrived at the crease with Lancashire needing 41 off 5.3 overs.

It was down to 24 off three when Collingwood returned and off the third ball Flintoff holed out at deep mid-wicket.

Lancashire needed 12 off the last over with Mohammad Yousuf on strike. Signed to replace Brad Hodge for five weeks after the Australian was allowed to take up an offer from the Indian Premier League, the Pakistani was on 32 but skied the first ball to mid-off, where Benkenstein held the catch.

Onions conceded only three singles off the next three balls, but three to fine leg off the penultimate delivery allowed Croft his moment of glory.

Durham's former team-mate Ottis Gibson was present in his role as England bowling coach, but he would had to concede that Flintoff was in a class of his own.

In taking two for 13 in five fast and accurate overs, he throttled the middle of the Durham innings and had Neil McKenzie caught behind just as the sun came out after the start had been delayed until 4.30 by rain.

The Lancashire side was not as strong as it might have been as they were without Glen Chapple, Dominic Cork and Sajid Mahmood.

They also chose not to include newly-arrived Kolpak signing Francois du Plessis, a hard-hitting batsman who bowls leg breaks and will be with them for the rest of the season.

In the absence of three leading seamers, Kyle Hogg opened up with James Anderson and struck with his third ball.

Mustard made room to cut the first for four, survived an lbw appeal off the next then went for an extravagant hoist over cover, only to slice a catch to third man.

Given the brevity of the game, and his modest form so far, Durham showed great faith in Kyle Coetzer by again sending him in at No 3.

He almost played on before he was off the mark, but was called through for the quick single by Di Venuto.

After playing and missing at Anderson, Coetzer flat-batted him over cover for four but then lifted a catch to Yousuf at midon.

The batsmen crossed and off the first ball of the next over Collingwood shaped to turn Hogg to mid-wicket and edged to second slip, where home captain Stuart Law took a one-handed catch to his right.

With Flintoff replacing Anderson only 15 runs came off the next four overs before McKenzie slogged Hogg from outside off stump wide of mid-on for four.

When the South African fell for 12 Durham were 60 for four and they had a let-off when Di Venuto, on 33, was missed by Mal Loye at short fine leg off medium pacer Steven Croft.

Di Venuto lifted the next ball over long-off for six, then Benkenstein reverse-swept legspinner Simon Marshall's first ball to fine leg for four.

It almost seemed as though Lancashire wanted to give Durham a chance as they also brought on the gentle medium pace of 21-year-old all-rounder Steven Mullaney.

Benkenstein drove him over long-on for six then took a heavy toll of Marshall's fourth over before depositing a full toss from Croft into the crowd at mid-wicket.

A swirling catch off the next ball was held by Flintoff on the square leg boundary, then Di Venuto turned Anderson for three fours behind square in the 21st over.

Anderson's five overs cost 40 runs, and despite Ben Harmison facing 11 balls for six runs Durham took 58 off the last six overs.

Neil Killeen had a good shout for lbw turned down as he opened up with a maiden to Loye, but Lancashire had raced to 35 in the fifth over when Gareth Cross sliced Steve Harmison to Collingwood at gully.

Harmison was then the catcher when Law tried to paddle Gareth Breese's second ball square on the leg side and top edged it to short fine leg.

When Lancashire needed 79 off ten overs Benkenstein tried to turn the screw by bringing back Killeen, but Loye reverse swept him for four as 11 came off the over.

Harmison returned and Loye top-edged a pull straight over Mustard for four then drove and pulled two more boundaries before he fell for 58 when Mustard leapt to his right to hold a good catch.

With the light fading, Durham were marginal favourites at that point but for the second successive match the last ball went against them.

Lancashire v Durham At Old Trafford

Durham

M J Di Venuto b Flintoff ... 66

P Mustard c Cross b Hogg .. 6

K J Coetzer c M Yousuf b Anderson ... 6

P D Collingwood c Law b Hogg .. 0

N D McKenzie c Sutton b Flintoff .. 12

D M Benkenstein c Flintoff b Croft ... 40

B W Harmison c & b Anderson ... 6

G R Breese not out ... 6

Extras (b2 lb4 w3 pens 0) ... 9

Total 7 wkts Innings Complete (23 overs) ....151

Fall: 1-13 2-30 3-30 4-60 5-121 6-141 7-151

Did Not Bat: G Onions, S J Harmison, N Killeen.

Anderson 5-0-40-2. Hogg 5-0-24-2. Flintoff 5-0- 13-2. Croft 3-0-26-1. Marshall 3-0-24-0. Mullaney 2-0-18-0.

Lancashire

M B Loye c Mustard b S J Harmison ... 58

G D Cross c Collingwood b S J Harmison 19

S G Law c S J Harmison b Breese ... 9

M Yousuf c Benkenstein b Onions .. 32

A Flintoff c McKenzie b Collingwood .. 10

S J Croft not out .... 10

S J Mullaney not out ... 4

Extras (lb5 w5 pens 0) .. 10

Total 5 wkts (23 overs) ...152

Fall: 1-35 2-61 3-111 4-130 5-140

Did Not Bat: L D Sutton, K W Hogg, J M Anderson, S J Marshall.

Bowling: Killeen 5-1-32-0. Onions 4-0-34-1. S J Harmison 5-0-33-2. Collingwood 4-0-22-1.

Breese 5-0-26-1.

Lancashire beat Durham by 5 wkts

P W L D N Pts RR

Lancashire ................ 3 2 0 0 1 5 3.42

Derbyshire ................ 4 2 1 0 1 5 0.11

Yorkshire .................. 2 1 1 0 0 2 0.19

Durham .................... 3 1 2 0 0 2 0.02

Scotland.................... 2 0 2 0 0 0 -2.31

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