MATCH REPORT: Durham win Metro Bank One Day Cup play off with Lancashire by 162 runs
A century by David Bedingham in a fourth-wicket partnership of 149 off 97 balls with Ollie Robinson, along with four wickets for Shafiqullah Ghafari led Durham to a convincing 162-run victory in this Metro Bank One Day Cup play-off at Emirates Old Trafford.
Bedingham and Robinson came together one ball into the 25th over with Durham on 110, but their alliance over the second half of the innings brought a dramatic improvement that saw the visitors reach 349-8 and left Lancashire chasing a record score in List A matches at Emirates Old Trafford.
Despite a battling half century from Joe Moores, Ghafari with 4-36 led a good bowling performance as Lancashire fell well short on 187 all out in the 37th over.
The Durham innings got off to a curious start with Ben McKinney and Alex Lees taking 13 off the opening over from Tom Bailey. The bowler responded positively by bowling a resourceful maiden in his second over.
It was Arav Shetty who provided a double breakthrough after the openers had put 56 runs on the board. The off spinner bowled Lees for 29 with his fourth ball, a measure of revenge after the Durham left hander had launched his first delivery for six over midwicket, followed by McKinney (35) offering a steepling catch that was well judged by a back-pedalling Rocky Flintoff at mid-on.
Jack Blatherwick had Will Rhodes caught at mid-off for 25 from the first ball of the 25th over to have Durham 110-3 but the remainder of the over proved troublesome for the bowler who produced three no balls and a wide that helped 21 runs to be swiftly added.
Bedingham, having hit a six in that over, also struck five fours to reach his half century from 56 balls and he was joined in a very profitable partnership by Robinson over the second half the innings.
The Durham pair reached their century stand inside 12 overs with Robinson hitting one six and 6 fours in going to a 44-ball fifty.
Robinson was in fluent form, driving superbly, as he helped the visitors reach 258-3 from 40 overs before falling to the first ball of the 41st when lofting Bailey to George Balderson at mid-off for 76 off 57 balls.
Ben Stokes, who received a warm reception from the crowd, hit a second-ball six but then clubbed a Balderson full toss straight to Marcus Harris at long-off to depart for 11, but Bedingham marched on impressively, taking 31 balls to go from fifty to an 87-ball hundred when hitting his fourth six before holing out to Singh off Balderson for a superb 104.
Colin Ackermann (24) and Kasey Aldridge (27 not out off 14 balls) added late runs with 91 runs taken from the final ten overs to steer Durham to a challenging 349-8.
The Red Rose reply saw two wickets fall for 48 inside the ten over powerplay, Singh caught at first slip off Stokes for 11 and Keaton Jennings caught at short wicket off Luke Robinson for 20.
And the hosts soon suffered two further blows when Josh Bohannon chipped Rhodes to Stokes at mid-on for 16 and Harris trod on his leg stump when facing Callum Parkinson after making 23 to leave Lancashire 84-4 after 20 overs.
Joe Moores, returning from his sojourn in The Hundred, hit a trio of sixes in a run-a-ball alliance of 59 with Flintoff before the latter skied a catch to Rhodes off leg spinner Shafiqullah Ghafari for 22 who then snared Shetty at cover for 2.
Moores added a fourth six by driving Ackermann straight to reach his half century from 38 balls before being bowled for 51 by Ghafari moments after Balderson had been run out for 1 by Ackermann.
Blatherwick (15) hit a brace of sixes before caught at cover off Parkinson and appropriately it was Ghafari who wrapped things up when Bailey holed out to Lees at the start of the 37th over.
Durham now play Middlesex in Sunday’s semi-final at Radlett.
“I think we were outperformed by Durham in all departments today,” said head Coach Steven Croft.
“I think the toss was pretty important today, but still we probably had a couple of backward steps from the Somerset game.
At the halfway they probably had 30-40 runs over par. I think they batted well.
“Robinson and Bedingham had a really good partnership.
“I think we let them slip a little bit and going into the break, we all probably knew it was a tough ask.
“I thought that they came out and put us under real pressure, and then we sort of stemmed the flow a bit.
“Arav got two very important wickets, and then we sort of let them get away a little bit more.
“They carried that momentum forward, and we know it in this format. If you're not taking wickets in the middle, it becomes very hard to shut teams down, and especially a good batting line-up like they had.
“We didn't throw too many punches in that run chase.
“Rocky and Moorsey started to put on a great partnership, I think they sort of showed the way.
“Granted, Taunton was a different beast on that wicket, but I felt like we were a little bit short with the bat again.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Luke Adams & Dan Adams