Yorkshire v Durham (Twenty20 Cup)

OTHER than those provided by the dancing girls, the thrills of Twenty20 cricket were in short supply for 4,200 fans at Headingley last night until Yorkshire contrived a dramatic finish.

They made heavy weather of what should have been a stroll to victory against Durham, scraping home by two wickets off the last ball.

Following their defeat, Durham need to topple the group leaders at Old Trafford tomorrow. But all the evidence so far is that Lancashire are in a class of their own. Despite their two Roses defeats, Yorkshire are now in pole position to claim second place in the group.

Both teams batted poorly, with Yorkshire playing a series of rash strokes as they slipped from 30 without loss in the fifth over to 85 for seven in the 16th as they chased a modest target of 117.

At that point Durham were favourites, but Darlingtonbased Simon Guy then brought some sense to proceedings to see Yorkshire to the brink of victory with Tim Bresnan.

The crucial moment came in the 17th over, bowled by Ben Harmison. Bresnan, on one, pulled the third ball to deep mid-wicket but it was coming straight out of a low sun and Mitch Claydon dropped the catch.

He pulled off a brilliant stop next ball to restrict Guy to a single, but Bresnan hit the last two balls for six and four and finished unbeaten on 19.

Neil Killeen conceded only four in an excellent 19th over, leaving Ian Blackwell to bowl the final over with seven required.

Two were needed when Guy swept a catch to Michael Di Venuto at backward square leg, bringing in Deon Kruis with two balls left. A misfield by Dale Benkenstein, of all people, at short extra cover, gave Kruis a single and Bresnan scrambled a very tight winning run.

The only thing which could be said in the Durham batsmen’s defence was that umpiring decisions did not go in their favour, but when they mustered only 26 runs off the last six overs of their innings they were left with an inadequate total of 116 for eight.

In two of those overs Rana Naved-ul-Hasan conceded only three runs, with Gareth Breese unrecognisable from the batsman who scored 37 from 15 balls against Derbyshire last Friday. He could barely lay bat on ball and starved Benkenstein of the strike when the ex-captain needed to press on while making the top score of 36.

Yorkshire could even afford to lose Michael Vaughan without facing a ball as he had the misfortune to be run out by a deflection at the non-striker’s end.

Andrew Gale had just holed out at deep mid-wicket and at 30 for two the door was ajar and Durham capitalised with some tight bowling, aided by reckless shots.

With storm clouds gathering before the 5.30 start, Durham chose to bat and profited from a couple of early fumbles in the field as the light continued to fade.

Gordon Muchall saw the ball clearly from the outset, however, following his unbeaten 127 in a one-day win for the second team against Derbyshire on Monday.

He went in after Di Venuto was adjudged lbw to Rana’s sixth ball. It looked to have done enough off the pitch to have a chance of missing leg stump.

Muchall, left out since the opening match at Trent Bridge, came in for Kyle Coetzer and timed the ball superbly with a series of pickups to leg.

One flew for six behind square as the fifth over, bowled by Kruis, yielded 15 runs, making Phil Mustard’s surrender in the next over unnecessary.

He stepped back to hit a straight ball from Bresnan over cover and was bowled.

Yorkshire recalled Ajmal Shahzad at the expense of Richard Pyrah, who had been the match-winner when the sides met at Headingley in the Friends Provident Trophy three weeks ago.

Coming on for the seventh over, Shahzad struck a big blow when he had Muchall lbw for 26, made off 18 balls.

Again it looked questionable, this time on height.

Varying his pace well, Shahzad conceded only seven off his first two overs, but Benkenstein showed his class by by late cutting David Wainwright before lifting him over mid-wicket for six.

The left-arm spinner picked up two wickets, however. Will Smith also tried to run him to third man but misjudged the flight and was bowled.

The captain had contributed a sprightly 20 to a stand of 35, and his exit in the 12th over at least left time for Blackwell to make an impact after being demoted two places in the order.

But when he tried to smash Wainwright wide of long-on, Kruis flung himself to his left to hold a superb catch.

The dark clouds had passed, but things were now looking gloomy for Durham, especially as Rana still had three overs to bowl.

He returned for the 16th over and began with five dot balls to Breese, who then took a single off the sixth and fared little better against Bresnan.

Breese began to shuffle around the crease to no avail and had made five off 15 balls when he walked across to the off side and was bowled trying to lift Rana over square leg.

Ben Harmison was run out for four by Vaughan’s direct hit and Benkenstein holed out in desperation in the 19th over. He wasn’t to know at the time that one more run would have been enough.

SCORECARD

Yorkshire v Durham
At Headingley Carnegie.

Durham
P Mustard b Bresnan 5
M J Di Venuto lbw b Naved-ul-Hasan 5
G J Muchall lbw b Shahzad 26
D M Benkenstein c Gale b Bresnan 36
W R Smith b Wainwright 20
I D Blackwell c Kruis b Wainwright 4
G R Breese b Naved-ul-Hasan 5
B W Harmison run out 4
M E Claydon not out 5
G Onions not out 3
Extras (lb2 w1 pens 0) 3
Total 8 wkts Innings Complete
(20 overs)116
Fall: 1-7 2-36 3-40 4-75 5-89 6-102 7-107 8-
107
Did Not Bat: N Killeen.
Bowling: Kruis 4-0-30-0. Naved-ul-Hasan 4-
0-15-2. Bresnan 4-0-18-2. Shahzad 4-0-18-
1. McGrath 1-0-9-0. Wainwright 3-0-24-2.

Yorkshire
A W Gale c Muchall b Claydon 19
A McGrath c W R Smith b Claydon 34
M P Vaughan run out 0
J A Rudolph c Mustard b B Harmison 11
Naved ul-Hasan lbw b Killeen 8
A Lyth b B W Harmison 0
T T Bresnan not out 19
A Shahzad st Mustard b Blackwell 8
S M Guy c Di Venuto b Blackwell 13
G J Kruis not out 1
Extras (lb4 pens 0) 4
Total 8 wkts (20 overs) 117
Fall: 1-30 2-30 3-67 4-70 5-76 6-76 7-85 8-
115
Did Not Bat: D J Wainwright.
Bowling: Killeen 4-0-22-1. Onions 4-0-19-
0. Claydon 4-0-18-2. Breese 1-0-6-0. B W
Harmison 4-0-30-2. Blackwell 3-0-18-2.

Yorkshire beat Durham by 2 wkts