Durham v Worcestershire (Friends Provident Trophy)

DURHAM soared to the top of the Friends Provident Trophy's northern group yesterday after amassing their highest score in one-day cricket.

They didn't need much help from new signing Scott Styris as they totalled 332 for four in their 50 overs against Worcestershire and went on to win by 143 runs.

The New Zealander pulled off a stunning one-handed catch at the start of the visitors' lame reply, but in the middle of the run feast he betrayed his first-day nerves by spending 43 balls making a rather jittery 19.

Not that it mattered as the flying start provided by Michael Di Venuto and Phil Mustard was upstaged by a final fantastic flourish from Will Smith and Dale Benkenstein.

Having given his partner 20 overs start, the captain passed Smith in the 49th over, when he hit successive balls from Doug Bollinger for six, four, four to reach 94.

But Smith faced the final over, from Kabir Ali, and took advantage of the short leg-side boundary towards the Wear by smashing the first three balls for six, four, six to complete a 104-ball century.

He was bowled next ball, but after his unbeaten 62 against Scotland on Monday he had the satisfaction of proving himself against first-class opposition. His previous highest one-day score, 95 for Nottinghamshire, was also made against Scotland.

For the third time in a fortnight Benkenstein remained unbeaten in the 90s and his runs came off only 66 balls, with seven fours and four sixes.

The fourth-wicket pair added 155 in 18 overs and the last ten overs of the innings yielded a staggering 116 runs, taking Durham past their one-day record of 326 for four against Herefordshire, made at Riverside in 1995 in what was then the NatWest Trophy.

Their previous best against first-class opposition was 319 for three at Worcester in 2004 in the 40-over competition, while they also made 274 for seven in a floodlit match there in 2001, a game they lost by seven wickets.

The only time there was the slightest danger of that yesterday was when Graeme Hick came in at 17 for three and hit 37 off 22 balls.

He then drove Liam Plunkett's second ball to give Kyle Coetzer a low catch at extra cover and the only thing left to admire was the batting of Moeen Ali.

The cousin of Kabir, the left-handed opener will be 20 this month and following his move during the winter from Warwickshire, this was his first competitive outing.

He set about Plunkett, who had one for 42 in six overs, and hit four sixes in making 86 off 83 balls before he was ninth out.

Going for another big hit, he edged to slip to become the fourth victim for Gareth Breese, who was then swept to deep backward square leg by Bollinger to finish with five for 49, his best one-day figures for Durham.

Worcestershire were all out for 189 in 33.5 overs and their surrender to Breese meant Styris got to bowl only one over at the end of the innings.

After beginning the season with a 241-run win at Worcester, Durham's all-round superiority yesterday was clear, even in the fielding.

While Styris plucked his catch out of the air at extra cover to get rid of Phil Jaques off the first ball of Worcestershire's second over, bowled by Ottis Gibson, the visitors twice dropped Benkenstein in a generally shoddy display.

They obviously haven't been helped by Glenn McGrath's recommendation of Bollinger, the New South Wales left-armer, whose abysmal bowling helped Di Venuto fly out of the traps like a prize greyhound.

Cutting and pulling the long hops at will, he had made 34 of the 57 Durham had on the board after seven overs, when Bollinger was replaced by Kyle Hogg, who is on a month's loan from Lancashire.

Having made no progress since his debut as highly-promising 18-year-old six years ago, it wasn't difficult to see why Lancashire are prepared to farm him out as his first over cost 13 runs.

Hogg improved later and finished with far more respectable figures than former one-day international Kabir Ali, who bore the brunt of the late onslaught and finished with one for 94.

Di Venuto had made 49 out of 84 when he got carried away and called for a suicidal single to cover.

Mustard wisely declined and his partner was left stranded by Vikram Solanki's direct hit.

Bollinger returned for another go, but by no-balling twice in an over he merely helped Smith get under way.

For the first free-hit the ball was in the perfect slot for Smith to lift it high over mid-wicket for a big six and for the second he made room to square drive it for four.

The introduction of spinners Ray Price and Gareth Batty applied the brake and on 46 Mustard swept left-armer Price straight to Hogg at deep mid-wicket.

The torrent dried to a trickle with 19 runs coming from nine overs as Styris played himself in, but when Hogg returned the New Zealander advanced to drive him over long-off for six.

The fans, who had greeted him warmly, obviously hoped this would reopen the floodgates but that task was performed by Benkenstein after Styris caught a Hogg full toss on the bottom of his bat and hit it tamely to mid-wicket.

Solanki, the visiting captain, wisely used four spinners in total but must have wished he had given himself and Moeen a few more overs as Bollinger and Kabir Ali were put to the sword.

Smith was justifiably ecstatic on reaching his hundred, but now he'll probably have to move down a couple of places to accommodate Paul Collingwood in the team to play Yorkshire at Headingley tomorrow.

SCORECARD

Durham v Worcestershire at Riverside.

Durham
M J Di Venuto run out 49
P Mustard c Hogg b Price 46
W R Smith b Kabir Ali 103
S B Styris c Smith b Hogg 19
D M Benkenstein not out 94
K J Coetzer not out 1
Extras (b1 lb3 w6 nb10 pens 0) 20
Total 4 wkts Innings Complete (50
overs) 332
Fall: 1-84 2-130 3-176 4-331
Did Not Bat: G R Breese, O D Gibson, L E Plunkett,
S J Harmison, N Killeen.
Bowling: Kabir Ali 10-0-94-1. Bollinger 8-0-75-0.
Hogg 8-0-47-1. Price 10-0-38-1. Batty 9-0-46-0.
Solanki 3-0-18-0. M M Ali 2-0-10-0.

Worcestershire
V S Solanki lbw b Killeen 5
P A Jaques c Styris b Gibson 1
M M Ali c Di Venuto b Breese 86
B F Smith b Gibson 9
G A Hick c K J Coetzer b Plunkett 37
S M Davies c Di Venuto b S J Harmison 10
G J Batty b Breese 2
K W Hogg c Mustard b Breese 6
Kabir Ali c Gibson b Breese 7
R W Price not out 13
D E Bollinger c Killeen b Breese 7
Extras (lb4 w2 pens 0) 6
Total (33.5 overs) 189
Fall: 1-6 2-6 3-17 4-79 5-106 6-113 7-128 8-148
9-181
Bowling: Killeen 6-1-25-1. Gibson 6-1-36-2. S J
Harmison 6-0-31-1. Plunkett 6-0-42-1. Breese
8.5-0-49-5. Styris 1-0-2-0.
Durham beat Worcestershire by 143 runs