DURHAM booked a trip to Kent in the Twenty20 Cup quarter-finals in late July when they completed their remarkable turnaround with an easy win at Grace Road yesterday.

Excellent bowling by Mitch Claydon and Ben Harmison, who took three wickets each, restricted Leicestershire to 133 for eight, then David Warner’s 44 off only 18 balls set Durham on the way a sixwicket win with 3.4 overs to spare.

After losing four of their first six games, two of them off the last ball, Durham looked to have little chance of progress. But Warner’s arrival transformed their fortunes.

Three comfortable wins and a washout proved enough as they edged one point ahead of their hosts into second place yesterday and also booked a place in division one of the new P20 competition next season.

The match at Canterbury will be on July 27, 28 or 29 and Warner will be available. But he will make way for Shivnarine Chanderpaul if Durham reach finals day at Edgbaston on August 15.

With storm clouds gathering, Warner and Phil Mustard fired Durham to 75 in the seventh over before they suddenly lost three wickets to leftarm spinner Claude Henderson.

Warner hit the 37-year-old South African for two sixes in his first over, but in going for a third he holed out on the boundary.

Having had three good runout appeals turned down in a slick fielding display, Durham then suffered further at the hands of umpire Tim Robinson as Mustard was harshly adjudged lbw for 27.

There was no argument as Henderson skidded one on to pin Kyle Coetzer for three, but Durham had the experience of Dale Benkenstein to guide them home after three wickets had gone down for six runs. The ex-captain remained unbeaten on 33 off 27 balls.

Earlier Claydon became the leading wicket-taker in the competition this season when he took his tally to 16 by recording the superb analysis of three for 14 in four overs.

On a pitch offering little to the spinners, the excellence of Claydon, Harmison and Neil Killeen more than compensated for the rustiness of Liam Plunkett.

After recovering from his groin injury, he was brought in for Gordon Muchall and conceded 36 runs in his four overs, leaving Durham to ponder whether he is fit for championship action at home to Worcestershire tomorrow.

Durham produced a sparkling performance in the field, with skipper Will Smith holding two fine catches while they were unlucky that three direct hits did not produce at least one run-out.

Leicestershire chose to bat on the same strip on which they beat Yorkshire on Friday night and Durham removed two of the biggest dangermen, Jim Allenby and Jacques Du Toit, in the first five overs.

Only five runs came off the first two, bowled by Killeen and Claydon, then Plunkett conceded 13 off his first over in the competition this season.

Only Warwickshire’s Jonathan Trott had scored more than Allenby’s 413 T20 runs this season and things looked ominous when Harmison came on for the fourth over and the former Brandon professional pulled his second ball for six. But after making 19 of the first 24 runs he then chipped a slower ball straight to Benkenstein at extra cover.

With Smith changing the bowling every over in the early stages, Killeen returned and Du Toit pulled a slower ball for four before the next delivery nipped back and bowled him for five.

With former South African Test player Boeta Dippenaar joining 23-year-old opener Matthew Boyce, the possibility of being put to the sword had receded for Durham and when Claydon returned for the ninth over he conceded only two runs.

Leicestershire were 60 for two at the halfway stage, then Boyce fell for 19 when he skied a drive off Harmison and Smith, running back from mid-off, dived to hold a brilliant catch.

There was probably a good case for keeping Boyce in, but the accepted philosophy is that there is no better way to peg back the scoring rate than to take wickets.

The youngster’s exit brought in the experienced Paul Nixon, whose bag of T20 tricks produced a match-winning 53 not out when the sides met at Riverside.

Dippenaar began to open up in the 14th over when he smashed Gareth Breese wide of long-on for a big six, then the South African pulled Harmison for four.

But for the second successive match Harmison picked up a third wicket when Nixon tried to hit him over extra cover and miscued to Breese.

Dippenaar completed only his second T20 half-century in the 17th over, but Killeen conceded only five singles, then Claydon turned up the pressure by taking two for two in the 18th.

Following two dot balls 19- year-old James Taylor holed out to Plunkett on the boundary and two balls later Wayne White stepped across to try to hit a yorker over mid-wicket and lost his off stump.

Dippenaar hit Killeen for two fours in the 19th over before edging to Mustard for 63 and in the final over Smith took another good catch off a clean strike by Henderson to complete Claydon’s haul.

Warner sliced the first ball of the reply at waist height just out of backward point’s reach then advanced to loft the third ball for a straight six off Andrew Harris.

Having left Mustard on the blocks in their first two partnerships, Warner scored 23 of the first 25 runs, but then the wicketkeeper pulled and drove three fours in New Zealander Iain O’Brien’s first over.

With rain threatening Durham’s first target was to reach 33 after five overs, at which point a result could have been declared under the Duckworth/Lewis method.

As it happened, they were 54 after five overs and with the rain holding off, such a rapid start meant victory was almost a formality.

Scoreboard

Leicestershire v Durham At Grace Road

Leicestershire

M A Boyce c W R Smith b B Harmison .19

J Allenby c Benkenstein b B Harmison .19

J du Toit b Killeen ....................... 5

H H Dippenaar c Mustard b Killeen .......63

P A Nixon c Breese b B W Harmison .... 9

J W Taylor c Plunkett b Claydon ............ 5

W A White b Claydon ............................ 0

C W Henderson c W Smith b Claydon .. 6

I E O’Brien not out ................................ 3

Extras (lb2 nb2 pens 0) ............... 4

Total 8 wkts Innings Complete (20 overs)...............................133

Fall: 1-24 2-31 3-60 4-91 5-114 6-115 7-125 8-133

Did Not Bat: A J Harris, H F Gurney.

Killeen 4-0-24-2. Claydon 4-0-14-3. Plunkett 4-0-36-0. B W Harmison 4-0-28-3. Blackwell 2-0-14-0. Breese 2-0-15-0.v Durham

D A Warner c White b Henderson .........44

P Mustard lbw b Henderson ..................27 K J Coetzer lbw b Henderson ............... 3

I D Blackwell c du Toit b White ..............19

D M Benkenstein not out ......................33

W R Smith not out .............................. 4

Extras (lb3 w4 pens 0)................. 7

Total 4 wkts (16.2 overs)........137

Fall: 1-75 2-80 3-81 4-129

Did Not Bat: G R Breese, B W Harmison, L E Plunkett, M E Claydon, N Killeen.

Bowling: Harris 2-0-17-0. Gurney 2-0-18-0.

O’Brien 3-0-30-0. White 3-0-25-1. Henderson 4-0-32-3. Allenby 1-0-4-0. Taylor 1.2-0- 8-0.

Durham beat Leicestershire by 6 wkts.