Durham v Sussex (Friends Provident Trophy)

IT WAS almost as though Durham had had their fingers burned by pulling Sunday’s match out of the fire as they totally failed to get to grips with yesterday’s Friends Provident Trophy tie against Sussex. Either that or they were as frozen as the woolly-hatted fans.

In a match as grim as the weather they lost by eight wickets and on current form their chances of regaining the trophy they won in 2007 are non-existent.

They lost three of the first four games last season, however, and still topped the group. So after one win from three home games they must hope to perform better in the south as the next three ties are away to Gloucestershire, Sussex and Surrey.

On paper it should have been no contest yesterday as Sussex fielded an inexperienced side. But matches are decided on a strip of grass and for some reason Durham chose to use the same one as on Sunday and were dismissed for 192.

Under no pressure to score quickly, former England oneday opener Ed Joyce, who has joined Sussex from Middlesex, was able to pick off the runs at his leisure, remaining unbeaten on 103.

At Riverside Durham’s seam bowlers normally give them an advantage over southern counties, but this pitch had lost what little life it had on Sunday, playing into the hands of the Sussex slow men.

They fielded three spinners, none of them exactly in the same class as the retired Mushtaq Ahmed, but they were good enough to throttle the life out of Durham.

All looked well when Gordon Muchall cut the first two balls of the tenth over fiercely for four off Luke Wright to take the score to 48 for one.

But in his next two overs the England one-day man had Muchall caught behind for 15 and Phil Mustard lbw for 27 and the rest of the innings was a turgid struggle.

Muchall looked unhappy with umpire Vanburn Holder’s belated decision, but as he had been dropped on nought he is still struggling to repay Durham’s faith in him.

Skipper Will Smith applied the necessary glue to the innings, making 65 before he was last out with ten balls unused.

But he also contributed to the problems by running out Dale Benkenstein.

A split second’s aberration saw Smith push the ball to short cover and run, leaving his partner with no chance of beating Luke Wright’s direct hit.

Durham’s plight at that stage allowed little-known youngsters Rory Hamilton-Brown and Will Beer to bowl their spin without fear of c o m i n g under immediate attack.

They finished with c o m b i n e d figures of five for 68 in 17.2 overs, while Sussex c a p t a i n M i c h a e l Yardy also bowled five overs of leftarm spin for 19 runs.

Both Beer, a boyish-looking leg-spinner, and wicketkeeper Ben Brown are 20-year-olds from Crawley, while another newcomer to the Sussex side is Joe Gatting, nephew of Mike and son of Steve, the former Arsenal footballer.

Beer impressed with two for 29 in nine overs, very similar figures to fellow leg-spinner Chris Schofield in the previous day’s match against Surrey.

Ian Blackwell has yet to reproduce his championship form in the one-day arena. He had 29 overs to build an innings but after making 13 he swept Beer straight to deep backward square.

Gareth Breese made a more sprightly 16 before shaping to turn H a m i l t o n - Brown’s off spin to mid-wicket and getting a leading edge back to the bowler, underlining the slowness of the pitch.

It was a surprise when Hamilton- Brown was taken off for one over to allow Robin Martin-Jenkins to return and Smith pulled his first ball for the only four he hit in his 50.

The off-spinner swiftly returned and bowled both Callum Thorp and Smith, the captain going for a big hit after taking three fours off the previous over from James Kirtley.

That was proof enough that the slow men were more effective, and yet again the pitch offered nothing for Steve Harmison. He opened up with a maiden and got past Gatting’s edge a couple of times, but he has yet to rediscover the wicket-taking knack.

No-one had it yesterday, the only wicket coming when Mitch Claydon had Gatting lbw for 48 with the total on 117. The replay on Riverside’s new screen confirmed there was even an element of doubt about that.

In the next over Luke Wright cut Thorp low to Muchall at backward point.

Had the catch stuck Durham might have seen a chink of light, but the total had moved on to 171 in the 40th over before Wright miscued Blackwell to extra cover going for an unnecessary big hit.

Murray Goodwin made 11 not out off ten balls before blocking one to allow Joyce to complete his century with the winning hit for four over midwicket off Blackwell.

Scoreboard

Durham v Sussex At Riverside

Durham

M J Di Venuto c Beer b D G Wright .......13

P Mustard lbw b L J Wright ...................27

G J Muchall c B C Brown b L J Wright ..15

W R Smith b Hamilton-Brown ...............65

D M Benkenstein run out ......................17

I D Blackwell c Joyce b Beer .................13

G R Breese c & b Hamilton-Brown .......16

L E Plunkett c & b Beer ......................... 5

C D Thorp b Hamilton-Brown ............... 2

M E Claydon c Yardy b Kirtley ...............10

S J Harmison not out ............................ 1

Extras (lb2 w6 pens 0)................. 8

Total (48.2 overs) ...................192

Fall: 1-17 2-59 3-60 4-85 5-109 6-140 7-151 8-161 9-191

Bowling: D G Wright 7-0-27-1. Kirtley 6-0- 33-1. Martin-Jenkins 7-1-21-0. L J Wright 6- 1-24-2. Yardy 5-0-19-0. Beer 9-0-29-2. Hamilton-Brown 8.2-0-37-3.

Sussex

E C Joyce not out ..............................103

J S Gatting lbw b Claydon .....................48

L J Wright c Plunkett b Blackwell ..........28

M W Goodwin not out ...........................11

Extras (lb2 w1 pens 0)................. 3

Total 2 wkts (43.2 overs)........193

Fall: 1-117 2-171

Bowling: Thorp 7-1-29-0. Claydon 6-1-26-1. S J Harmison 7-1-37-0. Plunkett 9-0-38-0. Blackwell 8.2-0-33-1. Breese 6-0-28-0.

Sussex beat Durham by 8 wkts.