PAUL Collingwood has generally been more effective with the ball than the bat in Twenty20 cricket for Durham, and so it proved in yesterday's 28-run win at home to Worcestershire.

Needing 162, the visitors were 60 for one after seven overs when Collingwood struck twice in two balls in his first over. He continued to throttle them with his gentle swingers and finished with four for 19 as Worcestershire limped to 133 all out.

Moeen Ali had batted with his usual blend of flair and class for 29 before Collingwood had him stumped, then he stuck up his left hand to hold a brilliant return catch offered by the dangerous Bangladeshi, Shakib Al Hasan.

Those two wickets changed the game and the victory enabled Durham to leapfrog their visitors into third place in the northern group with four games left. As the next two are against struggling Yorkshire and the final one at home to bottom team Northamptonshire, Durham have every chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals.

Durham generally struggle in this form of cricket when Phil Mustard fails to fire and after his night to forget at Old Trafford on Friday he again seemed out of sorts.

He was out to the second ball of the match then dropped Ali off the second ball of the reply. But he bounced back with two stumpings - one off a leg-side wide - and held a steepler to get rid of Vikram Solanki.

The talented Solanki looked fortunate to survive a direct hit on the stumps by Dale Benkenstein, but in trying to scramble into his crease he suffered a leg injury. He sent for a runner, but was clearly struggling and departed to a desperate heave.

Collingwood's success prom-pted Benkenstein to bring on himself and after Alexei Kervezee hit his first ball over mid-wicket for six, he drove the next straight to long-on to depart for 26.

No-one else threatened to take Worcestershire close to Durham's total of 161 for six, which had looked a little below par.

Although Ian Blackwell hit four sixes in making 77 off 59 balls, the only part of the innings in which they were really motoring came immediately after Collingwood's exit.

He reached double figures for the first time in six innings and went on to make 29 off 23 balls, only to get out just when they needed to press the accelerator with five overs left.

As it happened, they managed it anyway with 30 runs coming off the next ten balls before Blackwell fell to the last ball of the 17th over.

His score has been beaten only twice by Durham in T20 cricket - by himself with 79 and Ross Taylor with 80 in successive matches last year.

But even Blackwell struggled against Pakistani Saeed Ajmal, an off-spinner whose jerky action has been cleared by the ICC.

In 30 T20 internationals he has taken 43 wickets with a very respectable economy rate of 6.44, and Worcestershire held back the last two of his four overs until the 18th and 20th. The final one cost nine runs but he still finished with three for 22.

Durham's luck with the toss continued and on a glorious afternoon Benkenstein reverted to batting first following Friday's ill-fated chase at Old Trafford. Mustard was bowled off his pads by left-armer Jack Shantry and only a single and wide came off the first over.

Although Blackwell pulled Shantry for six in the third, Gareth Andrew helped to restrict Durham to 21 after four.

Gordon Muchall drove both bowlers wide of mid-on for four, but when Ajmal came on for the sixth over Muchall lofted the second ball straight to deep mid-wicket.

The next ball brushed Blackwell's pad and passed just over the stumps as only one run came off the over.

That meant Durham were about 20 below par after the six-over fielding restrictions, with left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan coming into the attack.

Blackwell edged his first ball for four but only two more runs came off the over, at which point Worcestershire erred by giving Moeen Ali's off-spin an airing. Blackwell hit his second ball over mid-wicket for six then swept him behind square for four as the over yielded 14.

Aneesh Kapil, an 18-year-old seamer from Wolverhampton, fitted in a couple of bustling overs, and when skipper Daryl Mitchell tried an over of his own medium pace Collingwood threw off his shackles by hitting him almost to the electronic scoreboard for six.

He also beat the man at short extra cover in driving Shakib for four, but Durham still could not achieve the momentum they wanted and Collingwood was bowled by Andrew going for a big hit off the first ball of the 16th over.

Immediately the tempo increased as Blackwell drove both Andrew and Shakib over long-on for six, while Benkenstein found the gaps with some rustic swipes on his way to 22 off 11 balls.

The first five balls of Shakib's final over yielded 17 but Blackwell chipped his final delivery straight back to him, ending hopes of Durham's first T20 century.

Ajmal cleverly drifted one past Benkenstein's flailing bat to hit off stump, then induced Liam Plunkett to loft a skier to mid-off. But Gareth Breese survived a blow on the helmet to hook Andrew for a six, which was carried over the line by the back-pedalling Kapil. Such incidents have proved crucial in the past, but this time it merely helped to take the total a little further out of Worcestershire's reach.

SCORECARD

Durham v Worcestershire
At Emirates Durham ICG

Durham
P Mustard b Shantry 0
G J Muchall c Kervezee b Ajmal 10
I D Blackwell c & b Shakib Al Hasan 77
P D Collingwood b Andrew 29
D M Benkenstein b Ajmal 22
G R Breese not out 10
L E Plunkett c Mitchell b Ajmal 3
W R Smith not out 7
Extras (lb2 w1 pens 0) 3
Total 6 wkts Innings Complete (20 overs) 161
Fall: 1-0 2-35 3-106 4-136 5-142 6-152
Did Not Bat: S G Borthwick, M E Claydon, C
Rushworth.
Bowling: Shantry 4-0-29-1. Andrew 4-0-32-
1. Ajmal 4-0-22-3. Shakib Al Hasan 4-0-35-
1. M M Ali 1-0-14-0. Kapil 2-0-15-0. Mitchell
1-0-12-0.

Worcestershire
M M Ali st Mustard b Collingwood 29
V S Solanki c Mustard b Plunkett 7
A N Kervezee c W R Smith b Benkenstein 26
Shakib Al Hasan c & b Collingwood 0
J G Cameron st Mustard b Collingwood 11
G M Andrew c Blackwell b Collingwood 7
D K Mitchell b Rushworth 12
B J Scott run out 11
A Kapil c Borthwick b Rushworth 13
Ajmal b Claydon 5
J D Shantry not out 0
Extras (lb3 w9 pens 0) 12
Total (19.1 overs) 133
Fall: 1-32 2-60 3-60 4-72 5-86 6-92 7-113
8-120 9-132
Bowling: Rushworth 4-0-31-2. Claydon 3.1-
0-18-1. Plunkett 4-0-28-1. Collingwood 4-0-
19-4. Benkenstein 3-0-25-1. Breese 1-0-9-0
Durham beat Worcestershire by 28 runs