SUCH is the curtailed nature of Twenty20 cricket, an entire match can hinge on just one ball.
At the halfway stage of yesterday's reply to Durham's useful 187-5, Leicestershire appeared to be coasting to a comprehensive win.
Former Durham University student Will Jefferson had bludgeoned the Durham attack into submission as he cracked 63 runs from 30 balls, and with Leicestershire having scored 113 from a target of 188, only one result appeared likely.
Cue the game changer. Durham skipper Dale Benkenstein brought himself into the attack, and his first ball trapped Jefferson leg before in front of his stumps.
Eight balls later, Liam Plunkett lured Jacques Du Toit into an unnecessary slog that David Miller snaffled at long on, and two balls later, Plunkett struck again as Abdul Razzaq guided a wide delivery to Gareth Breese at point.
From 113-2 to 125-5, and from a position of some comfort to a nerve-jangling cliff-hanger. Had Jefferson batted for two or three more overs, Leicestershire would surely have been out of sight. As it was, Benkenstein's timely intervention enabled Chris Rushworth and Mitch Claydon to combine in the final two overs to see Durham home.
Rushworth bowled the first of them, and while he conceded nine runs as he strayed towards the leg side, he claimed a crucial wicket by bowling James Taylor with his final delivery.
That left Wayne White and Claude Henderson needing to score 13 runs from the final six balls of the game, and while the former scored eight from the first three deliveries, including a scooped boundary over a vacant leg-slip region, the latter was unable to claim the four he needed from the last ball.
Claydon celebrated wildly as Henderson bumped the ball back to him, and the seamer had already played an important role by removing both Andrew McDonald and Josh Cobb in his first over.
Cobb's wicket was a crucial one, as the opener had threatened to repeat the explosive hitting that saw him thrash a 26-ball 54 in an abandoned game at Leicester earlier this month as he scored two fours and a six from his first nine balls.
As it was, Jefferson assumed the role of destructor-in-chief, taking a succession of risks as he crashed anything on middle or leg towards the leg-side boundary.
Benkenstein turned to six different bowlers in the first ten overs in an attempt to placate him, but it was only when he made it seven in 11 by picking up the ball himself that Durham's fortunes turned.
The South African was the star of the show with the bat as Lancashire were outclassed on Friday evening, but his figures of 2-29 meant he was Durham's match winner with the ball yesterday.
Batting first for the second time in three days, the hosts followed the same template that had served them so well two days earlier.
Once again, Phil Mustard led from the front, plundering 25 runs from 19 balls to ensure his side made the most of the early fielding restrictions.
Once again, a Durham batsman compiled a rapid-fire half-century to keep the scoring rate hovering above nine-an-over in the crucial middle period, with Gordon Muchall following Benkenstein's lead from Friday to score a career-best equalling 64.
And once again, the lower middle order ensured the tempo did not drop late on, with 43 runs coming from the final four overs as Matthew Hoggard in particular struggled to exercise any kind of control.
Muchall has cemented his place as Durham's first-choice opener in the shortest format of the game this season, and when he is playing at his best, the 28-year-old boasts the perfect blend of skills required in a T20 opening bat.
Diligent enough to compile an innings of substance, but explosive enough to throw the bat around when the situation dictates, he is becoming an increasingly vital component in Durham's limited-overs tactics.
He rode his luck somewhat early on yesterday, playing and missing on a number of occasions against former Pakistan international Razzaq, but he gradually found his range and proved especially dangerous on the off side.
He finished with eight boundaries, the pick of which was the perfectly-timed square cut off Hoggard that brought up his second T20 half-century of the season.
He received support from a number of quarters, most notably Ian Blackwell, who cracked 25 runs off 11 balls, and Benkenstein, who quickly amassed 23 before holing out to Henderson on the boundary rope as he attempted to pull Hoggard for a second successive six.
Blackwell, who swept a huge maximum off Henderson as part of his innings, perished to a slower ball from McDonald, before David Miller again failed to build on a promising start as he was undone by a well-judged Hoggard yorker.
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