IT WAS left to Mitch Claydon to seal a thrilling last-ball win for Durham yesterday after brilliant half-centuries by Dale Benkenstein and Ian Blackwell had left them with an apparent stroll to victory.

They needed seven off two overs with four wickets standing to beat Nottinghamshire in the opening Twenty20 Cup match at Trent Bridge.

But off the first ball of the 19th over Blackwell was caught at deep mid-wicket for 59 and suddenly victory was not a formality.

It should have been once Claydon had hit a full toss for four to leave the scores level at the start of the final over, bowled by Mark Ealham.

Gordon Muchall fell lbw to the second ball, then after failing to score off the next two Graham Onions tried to scamper a single to mid-wicket and was beaten by Adam Voges’ direct hit.

The batsmen had crossed, leaving Claydon with one ball to find the winning run and he duly clipped it just out of midwicket’s reach.

The jubilant Australian’s growing stature within the squad had reached a new peak and Durham can go into tonight’s home match against Derbyshire (6pm) full of confidence.

Both teams were indebted to fifth-wicket stands of 103, but while Nottinghamshire’s spanned 12 overs Durham’s came in only nine and turned the game after they looked down and out on 27 for four.

The hosts, put in under a grey sky by Will Smith, recovered from 49 for four to post a total of 163 for six after Durham allowed a promising start to be swept away by Will Jefferson.

The 6ft 11in former Durham University batsman, whose move from Essex encouraged Smith to leave Nottinghamshire for Durham, has struggled in four-day cricket.

But had he gone to the crease armed with a brush yesterday he could not have done a better job of sweeping away the Durham spinners.

Blackwell and Gareth Breese seemed incapable of stemming the stroke as Jefferson hit 75 off 48 balls. Wherever the spinners placed their leg-side boundary fielders, he found a way past or over them, hitting three sixes and eight fours.

There is much talk of game plans in this competition. It seemed pre-ordained that Blackwell and Breese should bowl in tandem through the middle of the innings, and they stayed on even though it clearly wasn’t working, emerging with combined figures of 8-0-76-0.

When Blackwell went round the wicket to the lofty right-hander his next ball disappeared over square leg into the upper deck of the stand, taking Jefferson to 50 off 34 balls.

Jefferson fell in the 19th over when he hit an enormous steepler off Claydon, which Smith clung on to at mid-off.

Onions was brought straight back to earth on his return to the Durham team.

He emerged from his two Test matches with an Achilles injury and might have wished he had rested a little longer as his fourth, fifth and sixth balls were hit for four, four, six by Voges.

Onions bowled three overs for 30 runs, but he did capture the valuable wicket of ex-Surrey and England one-day batsman Ali Brown, who was lbw for two.

Killeen bowled the first and seventh overs, while Claydon sent down the third and fifth and between them they had figures of three for 15 in those four overs.

Killeen had 20-year-old opener Alex Hales lbw for a duck and forced Samit Patel to play on.

Claydon struck with his second ball, having Voges caught low at slip by Breese for 17.

When the two seamers returned for the last four overs Claydon conceded 20 runs and Killeen only 12, while also having Kevin O’Brien caught at extra cover to finish with three for 21.

Durham’s reply began disastrously, with Phil Mustard lasting two balls and Kyle Coetzer three, the former holing out at deep cover and the latter driving straight to mid-on.

Michael Di Venuto pulled Luke Fletcher, a strapping local lad, for six in the third over, but after making 20 of the first 27 runs he drove at a wide ball from Darren Pattinson and dragged it into his stumps.

Perhaps it was a deliberate policy to bowl wide of off stump as Smith then chased one from Fletcher and edged it to Chris Read.

Benkenstein immediately took the game by the scruff of the neck, hitting successive balls from Pattinson for four, four and six before Blackwell was off the mark.

But the powerful left-hander also bludgeoned Pattinson down the ground for four before the over was finished and greeted off-spinner Jason Brown by lifting his first ball just over the rope at square leg. Fletcher seemed to pull out of a possible attempt to catch it.

Mark Ealham conceded only five off his first over, but from 55 after seven the Durham duo really pressed the throttle. Benkenstein took three fours off Ealham’s second over then Blackwell smashed three successive balls from Brown for six, four, six, all to the mid-wicket area.

It looked like plain sailing when Benkenstein hit Patel’s left-arm spin for two huge sixes in the 13th over, the second dislodging a few tiles as it all but cleared the old tearoom at mid-wicket.

That took the ex-captain to 50 off 29 balls, and Blackwell was one ball quicker, both having hit three sixes.

With the total on 130 Benkenstein fell in the 14th over when he accepted Jefferson’s word he hadn’t taken the catch at extra cover on the half volley. Two overs later Breese edged to Read, and when Blackwell departed after driving his fourth six there was just a hint of doubt that Durham would make it.

But Claydon was not be denied his moment of glory.

Scoreboard

Nottinghamshire v Durham At Trent Bridge

Nottinghamshire Innings

A D Brown lbw b Onions ...................... 2

A D Hales lbw b Killeen ........................ 0

A C Voges c Breese b Claydon .............17

S R Patel b Killeen ....................13

W I Jefferson c W R Smith b Claydon ...75

C M Read not out ................................43

K J O’Brien c W R Smith b Killeen ......... 2

M A Ealham not out ............................ 3

Extras (lb4 w4 pens 0)................. 8

Total 6 wkts Innings Complete (20 overs)................................163

Fall: 1-6 2-25 3-25 4-49 5-152 6-160 Did Not Bat: D J Pattinson, L J Fletcher, J F Brown.

Killeen 4-0-21-3. Onions 3-0-30-1. Claydon 4-0-26-2. Benkenstein 1-0-6-0. Blackwell 4- 0-40-0. Breese 4-0-36-0.

Durham Innings

P Mustard c Hales b Fletcher ............... 0

M J Di Venuto b Pattinson ...................20

K J Coetzer c J F Brown b Pattinson ..... 0

W R Smith c Read b Fletcher ................ 6

I D Blackwell c J F Brown b K J O’Brien 59

D M Benkenstein c Jefferson b Pattinson .53

G R Breese c Read b K J O’Brien .......... 4

G J Muchall lbw b Ealham .................... 8

M E Claydon not out ........................... 9

G Onions run out ............................... 0

N Killeen not out ........................... 0

Extras (lb4 w2 nb2 pens 0).......... 8

Total 9 wkts (20 overs)............167

Fall: 1-6 2-6 3-27 4-27 5-130 6-145 7- 150 8-163 9-163

Fletcher 4-0-23-2. Pattinson 4-0-34-3. Ealham 4-0-34-1. J F Brown 2-0-25-0. Patel 4- 0-33-0. K J O’Brien 2-0-14-2.

Durham beat Nottinghamshire by one wkt.