Guptill knock in vain as Durham hammer Lancashire

Lancashire Lightning suffered yet another heavy defeat in the NatWest T20 Blast despite a scintillating 72 from 46 balls by debutant Martin Guptill, as Durham cruised to a six-wicket win with five overs to spare.

Chasing a modest target of 150, Durham reached 151/4 after 15 overs, with Phil Mustard’s devastating innings of 46 from just 18 balls leaving a significant dent in Lancashire’s chances of defending 149/8.

Guptill hit ten fours and one six, scoring an eye-catching fifty on his Lancashire debut, but the defending champions suffered another humbling defeat on home soil, after being beaten by Derbyshire Falcons in their opening Twenty20 match at Old Trafford.

Lancashire were in a strong position after Guptill’s thrilling knock at 106/4, but the innings fell apart when he departed. Just 43 runs were added in the final seven overs, with the hosts losing five wickets for 26 runs.

Made to bat first, Lancashire’s new signing made an exhilarating start at the top of the innings, with Alviro Petersen (8) falling in the third over to Usman Arshad after being caught by Paul Coughlin on the square-leg boundary at 24/1. Karl Brown then fell to the next ball for a golden duck, edging behind to Mustard, as Arshad (3-30) made early inroads for the visitors.

This wicket brought together Guptill and Jos Buttler, with the Mumbai Indians teammates hoping to turn the innings around after two quick wickets. Guptill hit three boundaries in the fourth over, displaying expert timing and an eye for picking the gaps in the powerplay, while Buttler played his trademark ramp shot to find the fence in the first six overs.

The Old Trafford crowd were hoping to see fireworks from Buttler, who signed a new three-year contract earlier today, but he was the third wicket to fall when he skied a delivery from Arshad to Paul Collingwood, who had to take a good catch over his head, making good ground to remove Buttler cheaply for 10 off eight balls.

Lancashire were in a good position after six overs at 57/3 and Guptill continued to make an impressive debut, adding 60 runs for the third wicket with captain Steven Croft. The pair added 50 runs in 39 balls, with Guptill’s first and only maximum bringing up the fifty-partnership with Croft, as the Kiwi batsman smashed Scott Borthwick to the longest boundary over mid-wicket.

A 34-ball fifty with eight boundaries represented a tremendous effort for Guptill, who was eyeing the next milestone, as boundaries continued to flow for him and Lancashire. It took a moment of brilliance from Borthwick on the mid-wicket boundary to hold on to a stunning catch off Barry McCarthy (3-23), who claimed the prized scalp of Guptill, as he departed for 72 from 46 balls.

When Guptill fell, Lancashire’s innings capitulated, as wickets and the run rate continued to fall. Collingwood (0-26) and Borthwick (0-27) returned economical figures to restrict Lancashire’s progress in the middle overs and McCarthy returned with two more wickets to leave the score on 121/7 at the end of the 17th over.

Croft stumbled his way to 21 from 24 balls before edging behind to Mustard and Alex Davies (6) fell two balls later when he mistimed his shot to Mark Stoneman at mid-off and Arron Lilley was run out by a direct-hit from Collingwood for two, as three wickets fell in quick succession to rip the heart out of Lancashire’s innings.

Neil Wagner thumped a hefty six over the leg-side boundary during his knock of nine from six balls, but he fell to very the next ball attempting to repeat the shot, picking out Graham Clark on the boundary off Coughlin (1-40).

Stephen Parry (6*) and Kyle Jarvis (9*) added useful late runs to set Durham 150, although there was a clear sense that Lancashire’s total was well below par and the ease with which Durham reached victory justified this assumption.

Mustard’s belligerent start inflicted a big blow to Lancashire’s chances, as the aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman hit four fours and one six, scoring 23 runs off the first over bowled by Lilley. He continued his fierce stance at the crease, becoming only the second English cricketer to score 3,000 runs in English T20 cricket after Darren Stevens.

Stoneman played his part, thumping Jarvis for a maximum during his innings of 13 from five balls, but Neil Wagner (2-25) made an immediate impact, forcing Stoneman to guide his shot down to Jarvis at third man at 43/1. Mustard hit his third maximum in the following over and was approaching a lightning fifty, but his innings came to an end when he was caught by Guptill off George Edwards for 46 from 18 balls, with Durham reaching 73/2 at the end of the powerplay.

Mustard’s innings gave Durham a terrific platform to edge ever closer to victory, with Clark – Jordan Clark’s brother – hit 36 from 27 balls, backed up by an unbeaten 34 from Michael Richardson. Clark slashed Parry for two huge sixes in the space of three balls over mid-wicket, with Wagner returning to claim his second wicket when he had Clark caught by Davies on the leg-side boundary at 108/3.

Edwards (2-38) had Ryan Pringle bowled for 9 when he tried to ramp the fast bowler to the boundary at 129/4, but Richardson and Keaton Jennings (6*) stood firm, taking Durham to their target with 30 balls and six wickets to spare. Richardson hit Wagner to the boundary at the end of the 15^th over, resigning Lancashire to back-to-back defeats at Old Trafford, with the defending champions already facing an uphill struggle to kick-start their campaign.

Lancashire travel to Headingley on Sunday for their Roses clash against Yorkshire, entering this fixture as the current leaders in the first division, before they host Yorkshire in the T20 Blast at Old Trafford next Friday.