Paul Collingwood helps Durham to 54-run win over Northamptonshire
Alex Hales also hits hundred for Nottinghamshire on the opening weekend of Royal London One-Day Cup...
Tuesday 28 July 2015 10:42, UK
Paul Collingwood hit 132 as Durham started the defence of their Royal London One-Day Cup with a 54-run win over Northamptonshire.
Collingwood benefitted from a bizarre mix-up in the field when on 93, as Northants bowler Azharullah ran-out Ryan Pringle – on eight at the time – instead of Collingwood who was stranded at his end.
The former England batsman made Azharullah pay for his error by smashing 32 runs from 12 balls after bringing up his hundred, to propel Durham to 313-8 from their 50 overs.
Northamptonshire lost four wickets for four runs to fall to 37-4 in their reply and although they recovered to 259 with impressive knocks for Richard Levi (87) and Ben Duckett (69), they fell 54 short.
In the second of the opening fixtures in the Royal London One-Day Cup, Nottinghamshire cruised to a comfortable nine-wicket win over Warwickshire, with Alex Hales hitting 103.
Ian Bell also batted himself into a bit of form prior to the third Ashes Test on Wednesday, with 52, but the rest of the Warwickshire batsmen struggled on their way to 220 all out with Dan Christian taking 5-40.
Nottinghamshire smashed 164 in the first 20 overs – Hales bringing up his century off 56 balls with his ninth six – as they won inside 29 overs.
Hales fell to Recordo Gordon soon after reaching his hundred, but Riki Wessels (87no) and James Taylor (24no) saw Nottinghamshire home.
In the live game on Sky Sports Ashes HD, Northamptonshire won the toss and chose to bowl first in seamer-friendly conditions, picking up an early breakthrough as Durham captain Mark Stoneman fell for 11.
Azharrullah then found himself on a hat-trick as he got both Scott Borthwick (17) and Graham Clark (one) to edge behind to Duckett with the last and first ball of consecutive overs.
That reduced Durham to 72-3 in the 16th over, but Collingwood joined Phil Mustard – who was playing nicely at the other end – and the pair put on 61 for the fourth wicket to steady the ship.
Mustard fell for 65, stumped off Steven Crook, after some great work by his fellow wicketkeeper Duckett.
Gordon Muchall (45) added a further 92 runs with Collingwood for the next wicket, but he fell to David Willey on the stroke of the final 10 overs.
Durham still managed 88 runs from those final 10, thanks in large part to Azharullah’s error which allowed Collingwood through to his sixth List A hundred and helped Durham over 300.
Northamptonshire’s innings started brightly as Levi and Josh Cobb (22) dealt a few early boundary blows, but shortly after being dropped by John Hastings, Cobb found him again and this time the Australian overseas pro made no mistake.
It was this first of three quick wickets for Chris Rushworth (4-41), as he then bowled Adam Rossington and Alex Wakely in his next over to also find himself on a hat-trick.
Willey attempted to wrestle some momentum back with a quick-fire 34 from just 25 balls before Collingwood added to his great all-round day with a wicket.
Durham found the sixth Northamptonshire wicket much trickier to come by, as Levi and the particularly impressive 20-year-old Duckett put on 125 runs together.
But just as they were getting themselves back into the game, witch Durham struggling with their fifth bowling option, Levi was bowled by Hastings (4-35) attempting an ugly slog.
Rory Kleinveldt kept things interesting for a little while longer, clubbing 23 from 20 balls but he and Duckett departed within an over of each other to extinguish any faint hopes of a Northants win.
