DURHAM turned a stroll into a scramble before Mitch Claydon sealed a one-wicket win off the last ball in the opening Twenty20 Cup tie at Trent Bridge.

With the scores level at the start of the final over, Durham had three wickets standing. But they lost Gordon Muchall, lbw to Mark Ealham, to the second ball and after failing to score off the next two Graham Onions was run out.

In trying to scramble a single to mid-wicket he was beaten by Adam Voges' direct hit, but the batsmen had crossed and Claydon hit the final ball just out of mid-wicket's reach.

Durham slumped to 27 for four in reply to Nottinghamshire's 163 for six, but a stand of 103 in only nine overs between Dale Benkenstein and Ian Blackwell made the victory possible.

Earlier WillL Jefferson, the 6ft 11in former Durham University batsman, literally swept aside Durham’s encouraging start.

The man whose move from Essex prompted Will Smith to leave Nottinghamshire for Durham rescued his side from 49 for four with an innings of 75 off 48 balls.

Durham’s spinners, Blackwell and Gareth Breese, bowling unchanged through the middle of the innings, seemed incapable of stemming Jefferson’s prolific sweeping.

They had combined figures of 8-0-76-0 as Jefferson and Chris Read put on 103 before Jefferson hit a steepler off Claydon, which Smith clung on to at mid-off. Read was unbeaten on 43.

Onions was brought straight back to earth on his return to the Durham team. He emerged from his two Test matches with an Achilles injury and might have wished he had rested a little longer as his fourth, fifth and sixth balls were hit for four, four, six by Australian Adam Voges.

Onions bowled three overs for 30 runs, but he did capture the valuable wicket of ex-Surrey and England one-day batsman Ali Brown, who was lbw for two.

Neil Killeen bowled the first and seventh overs, while Claydon sent down the third and fifth and between them they had figures of three for 15 in those four overs.

Killeen had 20-year-old opener Alex Hales lbw for a duck and forced Samit Patel to play on shaping for a repeat of the previous ball’s cut for four.

Claydon struck with his second ball, having Voges caught low down at slip by Breese for 17.

When the two seamers returned for the last four overs Claydon conceded 20 runs and Killeen only 12, while also having Kevin O’Brien caught at extra cover to finish with three for 21.