Lord's to provide test for struggling batsmen

Against the weakest attack they will face this season, Durham's early batting was a shambles, resulting in a six-wicket defeat.

After being put in on a lovely day they were virtually gifted 30 runs, yet found themselves 63 for five in the 14th over.

Sanity then prevailed with Gareth Breese and Andrew Pratt putting on 94, but Durham paid for the early indiscretions.

They took only 11 runs from the last five overs and were all out for 207, and although Derbyshire were behind Durham's scoring rate for most of their innings, wickets in hand allowed them to cruise home with 2.3 overs to spare.

At 163 for four with ten overs left, Jon Lewis gambled by bringing back Ian Pattison, leaving Neil Killeen and Mark Davies with two overs each unused.

Pattison's two overs were little better than his two expensive ones earlier - he conceded 39 in four - giving Hasan Adnan and Dominic Hewson the necessary momentum for victory.

Both also survived difficult chances, Hewson driving Liam Plunkett for four through Davies' hands at mid-on, while Adnan was missed by Lewis at mid-wicket off Graeme Bridge just before completing his half-century off 63 balls.

But it was the early batting which really cost Durham after pacy left-armer Mohammad Ali donated ten runs from the game's opening over.

The second ball flew to the boundary down the leg side, evading the wicketkeeper by some distance to kick-start a total of 19 wides, for which Ali and Nick Walker were mainly responsible.

There was even greater generosity when the gentle medium pace of Hewson replaced Ali for the ninth over and Nicky Peng and Gary Pratt took four fours and three leg-byes off the over.

They must have been salivating at the prospect of riches to come, but in the next over Pratt chipped a catch to square leg then Pattison was run out for a duck after some stop-go negotiations with Peng over a quick single.

After three successive ducks, Peng clearly had the chance to prove that his earlier good form was not an illusion. But on 28 he chased one of the rare reachable balls from Walker and edged to the wicketkeeper.

The earlier dismissals were more excusable, with Marcus North looking unlucky to be adjudged lbw in the fourth over when trying to work Graeme Welch through mid-wicket.

Welch was the one bowler worthy of respect and in his third over he had Lewis caught behind, with immobile feet again betraying the Durham skipper's worrying lack of form.

With Ali replacing the injured Kevin Dean from Derbyshire's championship side, they needed the spin of Nathan Dumelow and Ant Botha to support their seamers.

Andrew Pratt drove a straight six off Botha early in his innings, otherwise he and Breese worked the ball into spaces and kept the score moving at five an over without hitting boundaries.

When Hewson returned after his earlier one-over nightmare, Breese went for a lofted drive but only just cleared mid-off.

He showed some skilful improvisation with a reverse sweep off Dumelow and almost went down on one knee to scoop Welch just fine of the wicketkeeper for four.

But Welch had his revenge when he moved one away to have Breese caught at the wicket for 49 in the 32nd over.

Given the overs left, Durham might have added 100 more runs had it not been for their early loss of wickets. Instead they had to settle for 50.

Plunkett made 12 before clipping to mid-wicket, then Pratt and Bridge put on 23 to take the score to 200 with four overs left.

After reaching 50 off 70 balls, Pratt suddenly found himself confronted by the return of Ali in accurate mode and after failing to score off the first four balls he hit across the fifth and was bowled for 53.

Ali completed a wicket maiden and then had Davies brilliantly caught by diving wicketkeeper Luke Sutton in his next over.

Last man Killeen failed to score off two balls from Dumelow in the last over before having a heave at the fifth and being bowled.

Killeen then took a vital wicket when he had Australian Chris Rogers caught by Andrew Pratt in the fifth over of the reply.

But two of Derbyshire's EU-qualified imports, Andrew Gait and Chris Bassano, then put on 80 with little going right for Durham.

Bassano was almost run out on 20 by a deflection at the non-striker's end off the first ball bowled by Pattison, but he then smashed the next three balls for four.

On 34 Bassano miscued a pull off Davies just beyond Plunkett at mid-on, but he fell for 41 when he reached for a ball wide of off stump from Breese and edged to Pratt.

Gait fell in the next over when he top-edged a sweep off Bridge and lobbed a catch to Pattison at backward square leg.

A stand of 51 followed between Adnan and Sutton, who pulled Plunkett to Pattison at mid-wicket in the 35th over. Durham needed more wickets to have a chance and the immediate recall of Pattison to the attack saw the game quickly slip away from them.

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