Ashwell Prince hit 78 from 51 balls but Lancashire were beaten comfortably by the Durham Jets, who claimed a 16-run victory at Emirates Old Trafford to continue their perfect record in the Natwest T20 Blast.
It was only the fourth time Durham have beaten Lancashire in this format and the first time they have won a t20 match at Old Trafford since 2008, but the home side fell to pieces after Prince's lone effort came to an end.
Lancashire had bowled superbly to restrict Durham to 155, claiming the final eight wickets for just 50 runs as the visitors were bowled out in 19.4 overs. Stoneman top-scored for Durham with only his second fifty in this format, but the Jets bowled with just as much accuracy and took advantage of the lack of support on offer for Lancashire's South-African batsman.
The hosts managed only eleven boundaries, of which Prince hit eight on his way to a 38-ball half-century. Prince shared a 58-run stand with countryman Alviro Petersen, who actually did more to hinder Lancashire's cause with a sluggish innings of 20 from 24 balls, as he put more pressure on Prince and the tail end.
The Lightning suffered a similar collapse, losing five wickets in eight balls as Durham recorded back-to-back wins in the shortest format of the game. The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first, making good progress in the first six overs by reaching 59/2 as Stoneman showed early signs of encouragement with improvised paddles and commanding strokes through the in-field.
Support came in the form of Phil Mustard (5) and Calum MacLeod (18) but it was Stoneman who gave Durham a good start with four boundaries in the space of five balls inside the powerplay overs. Boundaries were a rare luxury for the hosts, but Lancashire were able to stem the flow of runs with wickets, claiming the prized scalp of Mustard when he was bowled by Tom Bailey (2/16).
MacLeod was also a key wicket for Lancashire after scoring 60 in 32 balls against Northants last week, but after a brisk cameo he was next to go when he was bowled by Jordan Clark (1/18), attempting to play a ramp shot having already hit the ball to the fence with a similar scoop shot moments earlier.
 |
| Arron Lilley was excellent with the ball as Lancashire claimed eight wickets for 50 runs. |
Durham raced to 50 in just 28 balls and their progress showed no sign of wavering as skipper Paul Collingwood joined the party, scoring 30 off 19 balls to offer much-needed support to Stoneman. Lancashire bowled well but would often concede boundaries to the final delivery of the over and this feature frustrated the hosts, who turned to spin for answers.
Stoneman reached only his second half-century in t20 cricket in only 28 balls and with Collingwood for support, Durham's progress continued to be a worrying sight for the home side. Collingwood came down the track with confidence, thumping Stephen Parry for six to bring up 100 for the visitors, but the Durham captain was eventually dismissed by Arron Lilley, top-edging an attempted sweep into the gloves of Alex Davies.
Lilley was the pick of Lancashire's bowlers, finishing with 2-18 from his four-over allocation and he went on to claim the vital wicket of Stoneman when the Durham opener was stumped by Davies, who had plenty of time to whip off the bails despite fumbling the first chance, as Durham reached 118/4 in the 14th over.
Wickets proved to be vital for the Lightning and spin worked a treat as Ryan Pringle was next to fall, this time to Stephen Parry, who struck a confident lbw appeal to remove Pringle for one run, Lancashire's second wicket in six balls.
Lancashire continued to halt Durham's progress with further breakthroughs as Scott Borthwick was also stumped, this time off Steven Croft (1-21), and Gordon Muchall fell for a patient 21 when he picked out Bailey in the covers to give George Edwards his first wicket of the match.
This was the fifth wicket to fall for 37 runs and Durham's collapse continued as the Lancashire seamers enjoyed the opportunity to bowl at the tail-enders. Having said that, Durham had a formidable line-up and the hard-hitting John Hastings was a mean opponent coming out to bat at number eight.
 |
| Captain Croft was unable to pull off a match-winning knock on this occasion. |
But the Australian made just one before he became Bailey's second victim, as the Lancashire seamer finished with 2-26 from three overs. Lancashire claimed three wickets in five balls to put Durham out of their misery, Edwards removing Usman Arshad (2) with Prince taking a good catch at deep mid-wicket, before Keaton Jennings (1) was run out, as Durham were bowled out for 155.
This represented a tremendous comeback from the Lancashire attack and the Lightning made a good start to their chase of 156, scoring ten runs off the first over, but this unfortunately didn't set the tone for the innings. Prince and Livingstone represent two ends of the spectrum in age and when the veteran refused a single, Livingstone was left stranded as he was run out for two.
Karl Brown was Lancashire's best player in one-day cricket last season, but he struggled to find his rhythm in the powerplay overs, eventually falling to Arshad when he was bowled for eight. Prince was left to his own devices and with captain Croft (5) at the crease, Lancashire would have been fairly confident that they could win the match.
Croft hit 70 from 39 balls to guide Lancashire to victory against the Foxes last Friday, but he too struggled to get a hold of the Durham attack, fending an indecisive shot into the air as Chris Rushworth collected the catch off the bowling of Borthwick.
This wicket saw the introduction of Petersen and his innings did little to assist Prince who was fighting a lone cause as the required run rate climbed steadily. Petersen continued to steal the strike with harmless singles, as Lancashire experienced a damaging period without any boundaries for over five overs.
Prince reached his fifty in 34 balls with five fours and unfortunately singles were not enough to keep Lancashire in check as the run rate increased to nearly 12 runs per over. With Prince and Petersen settled, their slow progress could have been forgiven if one or both batsmen had kicked on and played with some degree of intent, but Petersen returned to the pavilion having made Prince's cause almost impossible.
 |
| Prince's innings wasn't enough as Lancashire fell comfortably short of their target. |
A 50 partnership in 40 deliveries simply wasn't quick enough and when Petersen was bowled by Pringle for 20, the likes of Davies and Clark were left with too much to do and Prince also began to feel the strain as he went on to reach his best score for Lancashire in t20 cricket.
Davies gave Lancashire what they had been lacking for so long as he improvised to find the boundary with paddled scoops behind the keeper, but he was out for 15 off nine balls when he dropped his bat and was run out attempting to run a quick single.
Prince followed in similar fashion when he attempted to recover the strike from Clark, but the deadly accuracy of Mustard meant that the 37-year-old was run out for 78 off 51 balls and with that wicket Lancashire's hopes of winning the game disappeared.
Clark and Lilley are more than capable lower-order batsmen, but the task of 25 runs from the final two overs was too much for them as Lancashire lost five wickets for four runs at the death. Clark, Lilley and Bailey all fell with the score at 135 as Hastings (2-22) struck with two wickets in two balls, before Bailey departed to Arshad (2-9) without scoring.
Stephen Parry (2*) and George Edwards (1*) remained unbeaten, but it was Durham who claimed a comfortable victory at Old Trafford to stay top of the North Group.
No comments:
Post a Comment