Collingwood stars in victory

HOW Durham enjoyed the luxury of fielding three England players for the first time yesterday.

They thoroughly outshone the Lancashire trio and easily overcame another mid-innings wobble to win the Friends Provident Trophy match at Riverside by 57 runs.

Paul Collingwood made a high-class 74 and fielded superbly, Liam Plunkett plundered 33 runs and took two vital wickets, and Steve Harmison chipped in with 14 not out and two for 31.

Andrew Flintoff was totally upstaged as his first and third spells were expensive and he also got out irresponsibly for 11 at a time when he needed to take charge of what ought to have been a routine victory chase.

On a good pitch Durham's 220 for nine looked about 30 below par, and it still appeared that way when Lancashire reached 76 for one in the 19th over.

But after Plunkett plucked out Mal Loye and Brad Hodge, Flintoff lifted Gareth Breese to Harmison at deep mid-wicket, and with Stuart Law ruled out by a calf injury Lancashire suddenly looked short of batting. They were all out for 163 in the 46th over.

Breese also had Steve Croft lbw and the fact he got through his ten overs without coming under fire meant Collingwood wasn't called on to bowl.

He was comfortably the game's top scorer, however, and there was genuine excitement for Durham fans when he and Kyle Coetzer were putting two of Lancashire's England bowlers to the sword.

A third-wicket stand of 93 in 16 overs raised hopes of a total of 250 after winning the toss, but from 116 for two Durham crumbled to 180 for eight.

Although Harmison would have enjoyed driving Flintoff for four, the sting in the tail owed most to Plunkett, who drove Flintoff and Sajid Mahmood over long-on for huge sixes.

The total still looked light when Durham's greatest recent nemesis, opener Loye, got off the mark with a slog/sweep for six off Neil Killeen and hit two more in his first 25 runs before going on to make 43.

Coming on for the 11th over, Harmison had Mark Chilton caught behind in opening up with a wicket maiden.

TV technology showed Harmison was the only bowler to top 90mph and on a pitch of generally low bounce he made a couple climb steeply to beat Hodge.

After conceding 14 runs in his first five-over spell, Harmison made way for Plunkett, who persuaded Loye to cut a catch to Collingwood at backward point, then nipped one back and bowled Hodge for 20.

At that point it was down to Flintoff to take control, but his surrender was followed by Luke Sutton going for a suicidal single to Collingwood and paying the price, leaving Lancashire in a hopeless position.

Coetzer was a revelation in his first one-day appearance for Durham until he carelessly holed out at long-off for 35.

He hit three fours in an over off Mahmood, which included an audacious flat-batted shot back over the bowler's head.

It might be the sort of shot they play in Coetzer's native Aberdeen, but Mahmood is unlikely to have suffered such treatment in the international arena.

The third-wicket pair had taken 19 runs off Flintoff's first three-over spell and 22 off four from Mahmood, but the runs dried up when Keedy came on.

After luring Coetzer into his indiscretion, the left-arm spinner had skipper Dale Benkenstein lbw for two and Collingwood had to try to rebuild in partnership with Garry Park.

They put on 36 in 11 overs, but then three wickets went down for nine runs and Plunkett's innings proved priceless.

In a team boasting five seamers with England experience it was Keedy's three for 42 which throttled Durham on a good pitch offering a little turn.

He initially replaced Flintoff for the 17th over after Collingwood had driven his England colleague for successive fours, the first blow almost carrying for six at long-off.

Keedy also had Breese lbw attempting to sweep, and although the TV replay showed the ball had turned enough to miss off stump Durham did not refer the decision to the third umpire.

Only 27 runs were added between the 20th and 30th overs and the stranglehold continued as Flintoff returned and conceded only one off his first over. Collingwood tried to break free by attempting a short-arm pull off a ball too full for the shot and hit the top of his leg stump.

After hitting all his eight fours in racing to 50 off 46 balls, Collingwood had worked the ball around with typical aplomb in grafting for his next 24 runs and would be disappointed to get out with 14 overs remaining.

As it turned out, however, he had done enough to set Durham on the way to their second win in three games in the competition.

Durham had no joy yesterday with their first taste of the experiment which allows sides to refer two decisions per innings to the third umpire in sky-televised Friends Provident Trophy matches.

Like most others, Durham are not in favour of this move and did not exercise the right of appeal with either of the questionable lbw decisions which went against them in their innings.

But when Steve Harmison's confident appeal for lbw was turned down by Neil Mallender with Mal Loye on 29 they decided to refer it to Neil Bainton.

The early signs are that umpires will close ranks and overturn decisions only when a very bad error has been made, and in this case it wasn't clear from the replay whether the ball would have passed over the stumps.

The second referral came when Steve Croft advanced a stride down the pitch to Gareth Breese and the ball lobbed off his pad for Phil Mustard to dart round and take a tumbling catch at short square leg.

Durham were convinced the ball had struck bat, but there was nothing in the replay to suggest umpire Jeremy Lloyds had got it wrong.

SCORECARD

Durham v Lancashire at Riverside.

Durham Innings
M J Di Venuto c Sutton b Anderson 12
P Mustard c Flintoff b Anderson 3
P D Collingwood b Flintoff 74
K J Coetzer c Anderson b Keedy 35
D M Benkenstein lbw b Keedy 2
G T Park b Flintoff 28
G R Breese lbw b Keedy 2
L E Plunkett b Mahmood 33
G Onions b Mahmood 4
S J Harmison not out 14
N Killeen not out 3
Extras (lb3 w5 nb2 pens 0) 10
Total 9 wkts Innings Complete
(50 overs) 220
Fall: 1-14 2-23 3-116 4-119 5-155 6-164 7-
164 8-180 9-207
Bowling: Anderson 9-0-36-2. Cork 5-0-22-0.
Flintoff 10-1-48-2. Mahmood 7-0-38-2. Keedy 10-
0-42-3. Chapple 7-0-21-0. Hodge 2-0-10-0.

Lancashire Innings
M B Loye c Collingwood b Plunkett 43
M J Chilton c Mustard b S J Harmison 14
B J Hodge b Plunkett 20
A Flintoff c S J Harmison b Breese 11
S J Croft lbw b Breese 9
L D Sutton c Benkenstein b Killeen 22
G Chapple run out 0
D G Cork c Mustard b S J Harmison 5
S I Mahmood lbw b Onions 24
J M Anderson not out 2
G Keedy c K J Coetzer b Onions 5
Extras (lb3 w1 nb4 pens 0) 8
Total (45.2 overs) 163
Fall: 1-41 2-76 3-86 4-100 5-106 6-107 7-118
8-142 9-157
Bowling: Killeen 8-1-38-1. Onions 7.2-0-39-2. S
J Harmison 10-2-31-2. Plunkett 10-1-27-2.
Breese 10-2-25-2.
Durham beat Lancashire by 57 runs