PHIL Mustard returned to his one-day best as Durham opened their Friends Life t20 account with an impressive performance at Northampton last night.

With 53 runs in six CB 40 League innings behind him this season, Mustard thrashed an unbeaten 61 off 41 balls to propel Durham to a nine-wicket win with 23 balls to spare.

This type of cricket needs either a boundary blitz or a dramatic finish, or preferably both, to keep the punters entertained. But the Steelbacks' fans got neither from their heroes, whose excellent start to the season was put into very sharp perspective by a Durham team who looked as though they had finally got the hang of the crash, bang format.

It was an amazingly easy win against a team who did the double against them last season and will take Durham to Derby for tonight's floodlit match full of confidence.

It probably made little difference, but Ian Blackwell was dropped on one and proceeded to finish the job by hitting an unbeaten 41 off 27 balls.

One of his two sixes was a huge blow over long-off which dented a smart black car and at least proved that he had suffered no lasting damage after being struck a painful blow on the hand.

That came when left-armer David Willey bowled a bouncer after being hit for four, six, four off the first three balls of the 12th over.

After restricting Northants to 124 for nine, the acceleration to victory was all the more impressive after only four runs came off the first three overs of the reply.

Paul Collingwood showed his skills as a Twenty20 bowler by taking two for 15 in four excellent overs, then Mustard mixed brute force with clever improvisation to dominate an opening stand of 60 with Gordon Muchall.

Durham got off to a cracking start after Dale Benkenstein won the toss on his 37th birthday and invited Northants to bat on a greenish pitch.

It also offered good pace and bounce, which was a surprise given that Durham clearly had the stronger seam attack.

On an overcast evening the ball nipped around and after three overs Northants were eight for two. Chris Rushworth pinned Chaminda Vaas lbw with his first ball then Graham Onions had Alex Wakeley caught behind.

Northants were really under pressure by the time they completed the six-over powerplay with only 21 on the board.

Stephen Peters had scored only two off 12 balls when he top edged a Mitch Claydon bouncer for six. But the former Essex man still couldn't shake off his frustration as he faced four dot balls in Liam Plunkett's opening over.

When Peters finally middled one it was brilliantly stopped by David Miller, diving to his left at mid-on. The batsman was more than halfway down the pitch but had to go back and had no chance of regaining his ground.

Two balls later David Sales was surprised by extra bounce from Collingwood and got a leading edge to Benkenstein at cover when shaping to play to leg.

In his second over Collingwood skidded one through to have White lbw for 21.

With Plunkett conceding only three runs off his first two overs and Collingwood four, Northants were 45 for five after 12. But Johan Botha then hit only the fourth four of the innings as Plunkett's third and fourth overs cost 19.

Collingwood, however, continued to confuse the batsmen by mixing up his pace, often dropping to little more than a spin bowler's velocity.

But Benkenstein had clearly decided the pitch was made for seam, recalling Rushworth and Claydon for the last four overs.

The captain might have been better served by his own bowling as the sixth-wicket pair used Claydon's extra pace to take 15 runs off the 18th over.

Andrew Hall guided a short ball to third man and Botha went down on one knee to flip to fine leg.

Hall fell lbw for 28 trying a reverse paddle off Rushworth to end a stand of 63 in 7.3 overs.

Claydon picked up a couple of late wickets but conceded 37 runs in four overs.

The reply got off to an even more stodgy start than the Northants innings and both Mustard and Muchall were beaten by Vaas and Jack Brooks, but it all changed when Brooks was clobbered for two leg-side fours by Mustard.

Muchall made only two off the first 11 balls he faced but a sweet leg-side pick-up off Vaas flew for six as 13 came off the fifth over.

Mustard greeted the evening's first spin by stepping down the pitch to hit Botha's second ball over long-off for six and followed up with a reverse sweep for four.

After taking four for 16 at Edgbaston on Sunday, the South African conceded 14 off his first over and when fellow off-spinner Middlebrook came on both batsmen hit him for four to bring up the 50 in the eighth over.

Willey replaced Middlebrook and Muchall clipped his second ball into the hands of deep square leg to depart for 19. Blackwell survived a difficult chance to White later in the over and proceeded to make Northants pay in devastating fashion.

In two T20 innings this season Blackwell has scored 87 runs without being dismissed and will doubtless fancy a few more against his original county tonight.

SCORECARD

Northamptonshire v Durham
At Northampton.
Northamptonshire
R A White lbw b Collingwood 21
W P Vaas lbw b Rushworth 1
A G Wakely c Mustard b Onions 5
S D Peters run out 12
D J Sales c Benkenstein b Collingwood 0
J Botha c Miller b Claydon 36
A J Hall lbw b Rushworth 28
D J Willey b Claydon 1
J D Middlebrook run out 0
D Murphy not out 6
Extras (lb4 w4 pens 6) 14
Total 9 wkts (20 overs) 124
Fall: 1-2 2-7 3-41 4-41 5-43 6-106 7-
118 8-118 9-124
Did Not Bat: J A Brooks.
Bowling: Onions 4-0-18-1. Rushworth 4-0-
22-2. Claydon 4-0-37-2. Plunkett 4-0-22-0.
Collingwood 4-0-15-2.
Durham
P Mustard not out 61
G J Muchall c Brooks b Willey 19
I D Blackwell not out 41
Extras (lb1 w1 nb4 pens 0) 6
Total 1 wkt (16.1 overs) 127
Fall: 1-60
Did Not Bat: P D Collingwood, D A Miller, D
M Benkenstein, G R Breese, L E Plunkett, G
Onions, M E Claydon, C Rushworth.
Bowling: Vaas 3-1-15-0. Brooks 3-0-20-0.
Hall 2.1-0-18-0. J Botha 3-0-24-0. Middlebrook
1-0-9-0. Willey 4-0-40-1.
Durham beat Northamptonshire by 9 wkts