Ali shuffles with the bat to give Durham a fright

DURHAM had a visit from one of the ECB's anti-corruption officials yesterday and some members of a healthy crowd might have wondered what was going on before they clinched a 39-run home win against Lancashire.

Durham were coasting to victory until Kabir Ali, batting at No 10, smashed five sixes in a 24-ball half-century.

With four overs left, he still had time to pull off a sensational win.

But he made room to hit a Ben Stokes yorker through the off side and lost his middle stump.

Lancashire, last year's semi-finalists, were outplayed by Durham for the second time in this season's YB 40 competition. They were all out for 258, Graham Onions taking four for 45 .

With all the English players who took part in Bangladesh's Twenty20 tournament over the winter due to be questioned about suspected shenanigans there, the anti-corruption man had a word with Phil Mustard before the match.

Mustard reported that he had seen nothing untoward and launched Durham on the way to 297 for nine by thrashing 65 off 47 balls.

Kabir, who was making his Lancashire debut after three injury-hit seasons with Hampshire, also played in the Bangladesh T20 and picked up a knee injury.

Having played in one Test and 14 one-day internationals in his Worcestershire days, his talent is well known. But it was still a surprise when his inside-out swing succeeded in clearing the cover boundary for one of the fours sixes he hit off Chris Rushworth.

He had put on 51 with Stephen Parry for the last wicket when he was out for 59.

Their strike rate matched that of the Durham openers as Mustard put on 126 in 14 overs with Mark Stoneman, the acting 40-over captain, after Durham were put in by their former colleague, Simon Katich.

Stoneman went on to make 85, Gordon Muchall followed his 30-ball half-century against Derbyshire on Monday by making 48 off 33 balls, and Stokes weighed in with 40 off 33.

On an excellent pitch Stoneman made a cracking start and Mustard was content to play second fiddle in the first few overs.

He then began to middle the ball with such power and placement that records looked certain to tumble. In the end, Durham had to be content with their highest one-day score against Lancashire, the previous best being 246 at the Durham University ground in their first match against county opposition on 1992.

Stoneman hit two back-foot fours through the covers in the second over, bowled by ex-Leicestershire man Wayne White, and followed up with three boundaries off Kabir in the fifth.

Mustard had been well behind Stoneman, but he thrashed five fours in Jordan Clark's second over of medium pace with meaty front-foot blows either down the ground or in front of mid-wicket.

They took him to a 37-ball half-century, but he miscued to long-on for 65 off left-arm spinner Parry.

Stoneman scored 35 off the first 23 balls he faced, then throttled back and reached 56 off 66 before hitting a full toss from Steven Croft over long-on for the six which got him going again.

His last 29 runs came off 21 balls before he holed out at deep mid-wicket off a full toss which would have been a no-ball had it been any higher.

Although Stokes middled some ferocious pulls, he seemed a little too anxious to knock the cover off the ball, whereas the more elegant Muchall again timed the ball superbly with pick-ups to the mid-wicket boundary and drives through extra cover.

Will Smith bowls against Lancashire

Stokes drove to long-off with five overs left and Muchall skied an attempted pull in the 39th over.

In Lancashire's reply South African left-hander Ashwell Prince raced to 22 before failing to clear mid-on, then Stephen Moore drove Onions to mid-off.

Chris Rushworth nipped one back to hit Karl Brown's middle stump and Katich aimed an ungainly drive across the line in having his furniture rearranged.

Doubtless there would be a few in the crowd at that point questioning whether Jade Dernbach is fit to lace Onions' boots.

At 44 for four the game looked as good as over, but the Red Rose was revived by 72 from Clark, a 22-year-old Cumbrian who hit six sixes in an over in a second team match at Scarborough this season.

He had Durham rattled when he cleared the rope off Stokes straight after reaching 50, but his ex-Cumbrian schoolboy colleague had him caught at cover then completed a three-wicket haul by bowling Kabir.

SCORECARD

Durham v Lancashire
At Emirates Durham ICG.
Durham
M D Stoneman c Parry b White ............85
P Mustard c White b Parry ....................65
P D Collingwood run out ......................10
S G Borthwick c Katich b Hogg ............12
B A Stokes c Kabir Ali b Croft ...............40
G J Muchall c Prince b Kabir Ali ...........48
W R Smith c Hogg b White ................... 1
R D Pringle lbw b Kabir Ali .................... 0
M A Wood not out ................................15
G Onions run out .................................. 2
C Rushworth not out ............................ 4
Extras (b4 lb1 w10)..................15
Total 9 wkts Innings Complete
(40 overs)...............................297
Fall: 1-126 2-140 3-157 4-206 5-248 6-256
7-262 8-279 9-293
Bowling: Kabir Ali 8-1-50-2. White 8-0-72-
2. Hogg 8-0-53-1. Parry 8-1-38-1. Clark 3-
0-40-0. Croft 5-0-39-1.
Lancashire
S C Moore c Stoneman b Onions .........10
A G Prince c Stoneman b Onions .........22
S J Croft c Mustard b Onions ...............26
K R Brown b Rushworth ....................... 1
S M Katich b Onions ............................ 0
J Clark c Wood b Collingwood .............72
G D Cross c Onions b Stokes ...............36
W A White c Pringle b Collingwood ...... 6
K W Hogg b Wood ............................... 2
Kabir Ali b Stokes .................................59
S D Parry not out ..................................10
Extras (b1 lb6 w5 nb2) ............14
Total (36.1 overs) ...................258
Fall: 1-19 2-39 3-41 4-44 5-80 6-128 7-157
8-162 9-207
Bowling: W R Smith 1-0-4-0. Rushworth 8-
1-64-1. Onions 8-0-45-4. Wood 7-0-47-1.
Stokes 7.1-0-50-3. Borthwick 2-0-25-0.
Collingwood 3-0-16-1.
Durham beat Lancashire by 39 runs