Durham's dynamic Dale tames Lions at Riverside

Local lads Liam Plunkett and Gordon Muchall took a big share of the honours, but it was the experience brought to the team by South African Dale Benkenstein which topped and tailed the victory.

His batting began the recovery from an unpromising start, and he also applied the finishing touches with his medium pace variations.

A combination of patience and class turned things round so dramatically that Durham made 224 for eight then dismissed Surrey for 86 on another glorious day at Riverside.

Durham have now won two out of two in both the championship and the totesport League and it is a pity that the Lord's fixture computer has given them a week off before visiting Scotland in this competition next Sunday.

Plunkett continued his brilliant form by bowling straight through his nine overs to claim his best figures in the one-day league of four for 28.

At 45 for five Surrey looked sunk, but at 67 for five at the 22-over mark they were level with Durham at the same stage with two more wickets down. They also had Graham Thorpe at the crease looking ominously comfortable.

But Benkenstein then teamed up with the Lewis duo, Jon and Mick, who held two catches each as Surrey hit out in desperation.

Thorpe was ninth out for 33, driving to short extra cover, as Benkenstein finished with four for 16 from six overs.

Durham were indebted to half-centuries from Benkenstein and Muchall, who put on 100 in 16 overs after they had struggled to 77 for four in 25 overs.

Now looking very assured in both forms of the game, Muchall made 70 not out off 64 balls to guide Durham to their highest home total in this competition for three years.

Having scraped together a mere 17 runs between the tenth and 20th overs, it was a remarkable transformation as Durham hammered 96 off the final 11 overs.

Surrey were unable to capitalise on superb bowling by 23-year-old seamer Tim Murtagh because they were a bowler light. Neither of their overseas men, Harbhajan Singh and Azhar Mahmood, have arrived yet and all-rounder Rikki Clarke is injured.

They had to rely on the occasional medium pace of James Benning and Richard Clinton and it was when Clinton came on for the 35th over that the floodgates opened.

Muchall bottom edged his first ball for four and cut the next out of third man's reach before working the ball around expertly for ones and twos while adding four more boundaries.

The experience of Benkenstein was invaluable as he first ensured that Durham did not collapse then gradually upped the tempo.

Until the fifth wicket pair came together the most impressive thing about Durham's innings was the way skipper Mike Hussey gently pushed the first ball to mid-off and scampered a single most would not have contemplated.

He also drove the first ball of the second over through extra cover for four off Mohammad Akram, but otherwise saw little of the strike in the first few overs.

As captain, Jon Lewis rarely saw himself as an opener in these matches, but he seems to have been entrusted with the anchor role and took ten balls to get off the mark.

In the sixth over Hussey pulled and edged successive fours off Akram, but on 17 he tried to break Murtagh's stranglehold by taking a step down the pitch and aiming to pull him over mid-wicket.

He succeeded only in skying a catch and eight dot balls followed before Nicky Peng hit an Akram no-ball through the covers off the back foot. He then carved the free-hit ball over point and worked the next one wide of mid-on for another high-class boundary.

At 43 for one after ten overs Durham could be satisfied with their run-rate after being put in, especially as Murtagh, resembling a smaller version of the injured Martin Bicknell, was giving nothing away.

In his next two overs he moved one away to have Peng caught behind then found Lewis's inside edge to give Jon Batty another catch after the opener had made ten off 33 balls.

Murtagh bowled straight through his nine overs to take three for 12 and until he came back for two overs at the end Jimmy Ormond was equally miserly.

Paul Collingwood survived a big appeal for caught behind off Ormond before he had scored during a four-over spell when two of three runs scored were extras.

Collingwood also needed time to recover from being struck amidships by Ormond and he and Benkenstein continued to play carefully when left-arm spinner Nayan Doshi, son of Dilip, replaced Murtagh.

But after making 15 off 40 balls Collingwood sat back to cut a ball from Doshi which kept low and hurried on to hit middle stump.

It may have been Muchall's good fortune that he arrived just as Benning came on to bowl and Benkenstein edged the first boundary for 11 overs.

But Muchall has looked comfortable against all bowlers this season and once Benkenstein had also lofted Benning for a straight for the brakes were off.

The South African reached his 74-ball 50 by hitting two fours in an over off Benning over short extra cover.

He was out in the 41st over, miscuing Benning to long-on, then Phil Mustard contributed 12 off eight balls and despite the loss of three wickets in the last two overs Muchall always kept the score moving.

Surrey's openers, Benning and the left-handed Scott Newman, looked in little trouble against Plunkett and Mick Clark as they put on 25 before being parted off the last ball of the seventh over.

Newman played on against Plunkett then Benning departed to the next ball, lbw to Lewis, and in his next over Plunkett took two big wickets and was narrowly denied a hat-trick.

He had Mark Ramprakash superbly caught first ball by Mustard, diving to his right, and Ali Brown survived a big appeal for lbw off the hat-trick ball.

Three balls later, however, the renowned big-hitter shouldered arms and had his off bail trimmed.

Plunkett had an even better lbw shout against Batty turned down by Peter Hartley before the Yorkshireman upheld the next one, which looked less convincing.

Benkenstein took the next four and it was all over when Doshi edged Collingwood to Hussey at slip.