MATCH REPORT: Bohannon century in vain as Durham clinch 57-run victory at Sedbergh
A century by captain Alex Lees led Durham to a convincing 57-run victory in the Metro Bank One Day Cup opener in front of a 2,000-strong crowd at sunny Sedbergh School.
The visitors made 344 for four, their highest List A total against Lancashire and their fourth-best in limited-overs cricket with Josh Bohannon’s career-best 147 in vain as the Red Rose side were bowled out for 287 in reply.
Initially Lees and fellow opener Ben McKinney were pegged back by accurate opening spells from Tom Bailey and Will Williams, after the Durham skipper had won the toss, with just 32 runs taken from the first 10 overs.
But once both batters had laid a solid foundation on a good batting track, they steadily accelerated the scoring before being parted in 20th over with 87 runs on the board when McKinney clipped George Balderson to Williams at deep midwicket for 43.
Lees and Bas de Leede marched on steadily to build an excellent partnership across the following 19 overs, adding 50 from 66 balls and posting their century alliance off 102 balls.
And Lancashire did not help their cause by missing two catches from hard hit shots, with McKinney dropped on 21 earlier and then Lees put down on 62 as Durham reached the 30 over mark well-placed on 135 for one.
From that point the visitors hit out effectively to add a further 209 off the remaining twenty overs with Lees playing the anchor role while the rest of the Durham top order attacked.
De Leede struck one six and 8 fours in making 72 off 63 balls before top edging Williams to wicketkeeper George Bell. Lees had made 111 off 126 balls by the time he was caught at long-on off spinner Harry Singh, making his Lancashire debut, in the 44th over.
Colin Ackermann continued the onslaught either side of Lees departure with a superb 59 off 33 balls that contained 5 sixes and 4 fours and ended in the final over when he skied a catch to Williams at cover off Tom Aspinwall.
Michael Jones’ quickfire 21-ball contribution of 41 not out helped Durham plunder 73 from the final five overs and set a challenging target of 345.
Lancashire made a bright start to their innings, despite losing Bell early for 10 after he drove Paul Coughlin to Jon Bushnell at point, as Keaton Jennings and Josh Bohannon quickly overcame that loss with a positive 72-run partnership in 12 overs.
The pair had Lancashire nicely poised on 91 for one until Jennings was run out for 44 by a superb throw from the boundary from de Leede after attempting a third run off the last ball of the 16th over.
That was the first of four wickets to fall in a disastrous six-over spell for the Red Rose side with Ackermann this time inflicting damage with the ball by bowling both Balderson (7) and Tom Bruce (16) before George Lavelle top edged his first ball to backward point, leaving Lancashire 137 for five in the 23rd over.
Bohannon reached a run-a-ball fifty and forged a good alliance with Singh as the pair posted their 50 partnership off just 52 balls in cloudy, darkening conditions.
The twenty-year-old Singh batted nicely for his 25 off 34 balls, but three wickets in quick succession by de Leede just about settled matters.
The Dutch pace bowler had Singh caught by Ackermann on the deep square leg boundary and then bowled both Aspinwall (4) and Bailey (3) to have Lancashire 210 for eight.
But Bohannon battled on, reaching 99 when hitting his third six before a single took the Red Rose vice captain to his second List A century off 93 balls (3 sixes, 9 fours) in the 38th over.
Bohannon hammered a fourth six to pass his previous best score of 105 and in alliance with Williams set a new ninth wicket record of 62 runs for Lancashire against Durham before Williams holed out to Ackermann on the midwicket boundary off Bushnell for 10.
Bohannon was eventually the last man out, bowled by Bushnell for a fine, valiant 147 off 119 balls that included 13 fours and 6 sixes, Lancashire’s joint-third highest innings in List A matches.
“It’s nice to see the hard work I’ve put in coming off,” admitted Josh Bohannon.
“I’ve worked on it for a while and the stuff I’ve done with Benks over the winter has been really beneficial.
“I thought I could get a good stab at in the T20, but unfortunately it didn’t work. To see the stuff I’ve done come off is pleasing, but it was in a losing cause which is frustrating.
“But it was really pleasing to start the competition like that.
“It’s given me a whole lot of confidence moving forward.”
“I felt the whole time I was out there we could win it,” he added.
“It gives me and my partner confidence to keep going for it, that we’re trying to win and not just bat fifty overs.
“Unfortunately we lost wickets in clusters, there was my incident with Keats that held us back a fraction which is frustrating.
“That’s cricket, and we move on.”
“We’ve got such a good young group of talent, to put up a fight against a strong Durham team like that is fantastic.
“With it being a young side we’ve all got stuff to learn, you can see in the middle phase of the game today we probably got it wrong. But hopefully the lads take the learnings from that and the next time we’re in that situation it will set us in good stead.”
Ken Grime
Photos: George Franks, Dan Adams.