Durham falling at the final hurdles

DURHAM’S decision to revert to batting first backfired alarmingly as they again fell in a heap in the home straight at Hove last night.

In an even greater surrender than last week’s slide to unlikely defeat under the Canterbury floodlights they lost by three wickets to Sussex after an unbroken stand of 97 in 14.4 overs between Yasir Arafat and Will Beer.

Mark Stoneman has won the toss in all four Royal London Cup matches and Durham’s one win came on the only occasion he has put the opposition in.

Victory looked certain when Sussex were 191 for seven in reply to 287 for eight, but the Durham bowlers were again found wanting at the death.

Arafat, a former Pakistan Test paceman, made 55 and Beer, a 25-year-old leg-spinner from Crawley, finished on 45 as their sensible batting took Sussex home with 11 balls to spare.

The capitulation was complete when John Hastings, recalled with six needed off two overs, sent down two noballs and a wide.

The sun blazed as brightly in the afternoon as the floodlights in the evening and Scott Borthwick shone under both, but after taking three for 29 his last two overs contributed to the winning partnership.

After being left out of the previous match, he and Paul Collingwood made the joint top score of 67.

Borthwick totalled 18 runs in his last six Twenty20 innings and was run out for six in the opening match in this competition.

After being left out of the win against Warwickshire, he returned in place of Ben Stokes and was sent in at No 4 after Stoneman shared an opening stand of 76 with Phil Mustard.

Sussex included one-day specialist Chris Liddle, from Teesside, who at 30 is in his tenth year as a professional but has played only 20 firstclass games.

The left-armer dropped short too often and conceded 68 in nine overs but did pick up the wicket of Stoneman, who made 58 off 74 balls before skying a pull to long leg.

The captain clipped two well-timed leg-side fours in scoring 18 of the first 22 runs before Mustard edged Arafat for four and was then dropped at slip by Ed Joyce.

The wicketkeeper capitalised by forging ahead of his partner and after taking ten off Liddle’s first over he was looking dangerous, only to be run out when he called Stoneman for a risky single, which was declined.

After making 40, 38 and 42 in the first three games, Mustard was out for 39, then Calum MacLeod made 14 before he was bowled trying to sweep leg-spinner Beer.

After reaching 97 off 20 overs Durham added only 30 off the next eight before Borthwick broke the shackles by pulling Beer for two fours.

Stoneman went to his 50 with a four through the covers off Piolet before departing in the 31st over, giving Collingwood just enough time to play himself in before the batting powerplay had to be taken.

The five overs produced 40 runs as, after a cautious start, the pull continued to prove profitable for Borthwick, who lifted Liddle over the rope at mid-wicket to reach 50 off 54 balls.

At 213 for three after 40 overs, Durham would have hoped to reach 300 but after Borthwick holed out at deep mid-wicket the decision to send in Hastings did not have the required impact.

He skied a catch to cover, but when Arafat returned for his last three overs Collingwood pulled him for four to complete a 48-ball half-century.

He added two more boundaries in an over which cost 15, but the Pakistani had his revenge when he bowled Collingwood with the first ball of the 48th.

Graham Onions made a good start when he nipped one back to bowl Chris Nash in the second over of the reply.

As he then came under fire from Luke Wright, 13 came off Onions’ fourth over, but he responded with a maiden then persuaded Wright to pull a catch straight to MacLeod on the mid-wicket boundary.

All the experience in the home batting had gone when Joyce edged Hastings to Mustard to depart for 26.

But Sussex continued to stay ahead of the required rate as former New Zealand Under 19 captain Craig Cachopa dominated a stand of 55 in nine overs with Matt Machan.

Cachopa had hit three sixes in his 39 when he skied Borthwick to deep cover, where Hastings hung on, despite being slow to pick up the ball just as the floodlights started to take effect.

Steffan Piolet was bowled by a Borthwick googly and when Ben Brown played round one which hurried straight on it looked all over for Sussex. But there was a massive sting in the tail.

SCOREBOARD

At Hove.

Durham
M D Stoneman c Y Arafat b Liddle .....58
P Mustard run out ..................................39
C S MacLeod b Beer ............................ 14
S G Borthwick c Cachopa b Piolet.... 67
P D Collingwood b Yasir Arafat .......... 67
J W Hastings c Nash b Hatchett ........ 10
G J Muchall b Yasir Arafat ...................... 6
G R Breese c Machan b Y Arafat ....... 11
K K Jennings not out ............................... 1
C Rushworth not out ............................... 1
Extras (b1 lb2 w8 nb2 pens 0) 13
Total 8 wkts (50 overs) .... 287
Fall: 1-76 2-100 3-142 4-216 5-242
6-270 7-284 8-284
Bowling: Hatchett 10-0-71-1. Yasir Arafat
10-0-47-3. Piolet 10-0-43-1. Liddle 9-0-
68-1. Beer 7-0-38-1. Nash 4-0-17-0.

Sussex
C D Nash b Onions ................................. 4
L J Wright c MacLeod b Onions.........36
E C Joyce c Mustard b Hastings ........26
C Cachopa c Hastings b Borthwick ..39
M Machan c Collingwood b Onions ..33
B C Brown b Borthwick........................26
S A Piolet b Borthwick............................ 1
Yasir Arafat not out ................................55
W A Beer not out ...................................45
Extras (b4 lb4 w3 nb12).....23
Total 7 wkts (48.1 ov)....... 288
Fall: 1-9 2-66 3-84 4-139 5-168 6-172
7-191
Bowling: Rushworth 9-1-51-0. Onions
10-1-67-3. Hastings 9.1-0-48-1. Breese
3-0-25-0. Collingwood 7-0-33-0.
Borthwick 9-0-51-3. Jennings 1-0-5-0.
Sussex (2pts) beat Durham (0pts) by 3 wkts