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Royal London One-Day Cup Group B: Wins for Sussex & Somerset as Surrey & Kent tie

Yasir Arafat Sussex
Image: Yasir Arafat: Starred with both bat and ball for Sussex as they beat Durham

A brilliant unbeaten ninth-wicket stand of 97 between Yasir Arafat and Will Beer helped Sussex claim an unlikely three-wicket victory over Durham in Group B of the Royal London One-Day Cup at Hove.

Despite a succession of starts, none of their top and middle order batsmen could push on and Durham looked overwhelming favourites when Scott Borthwick (3-51) removed Ben Brown to leave the home side teetering at 191-7.

But Arafat (55 not out) and Beer (45 not out) then embarked a quite brilliant counter attack, both men smashing seven boundaries apiece as an increasingly ragged Durham lost their discipline and, subsequently, the game with 11 balls to spare.

Earlier Durham had posted 287-8 from their 50 overs with Mark Stoneman (58), Borthwick (67) and Paul Collingwood (67) all contributing half-centuries.

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They looked on target to pass 300 at one stage, but some fine bowling from Arafat (3-47) at the death helped limit them and the same man would then come back to haunt the visitors with the bat.

Dramatic finish

In another extraordinary game, Surrey and Kent tied at the Kia Oval after the hosts failed to score the one run they needed for victory from the last two balls of their innings.

Facing Mitchell Claydon, Gareth Batty required just a single but, after failing to get away the penultimate ball, he was then run out off the final delivery as the visitors somehow secured a point to maintain their unbeaten start in the competition.

Chasing down 315 for victory, Surrey stayed on the pace with half-centuries from Steve Davies (58) and Vikram Solanki (83), while an unbeaten 16-ball knock of 27 from Zafar Ansari late on looked to have set the platform for Batty to get his side across the line.

Earlier, skipper Sam Northeast (63), Fabian Cowdrey (75) and Sam Billings (87) had all made fifties, Billings being particularly destructive as he made his runs from just 42 balls, smashing six fours and six maximums.

Easy for Somerset

In the group’s other game, Somerset recorded a thumping 117-run away success over Warwickshire to take over top spot from Nottinghamshire.

Peter Trego was the star of Somerset’s innings as he made a brisk century to help guide his side up towards an imposing total of 298-5.

Trego made 101 from 103 balls, clearing the boundary rope on four occasions, while a quick-fire 57 from Tim Groenewald helped inject further late impetus.

In their reply Warwickshire lost wickets at regular intervals as Alfonso Thomas (3-30) and Groenewald (3-37) finished with three victims apiece.

Laurie Evans did make a defiant 50 for the hosts, but when he became Thomas’ second scalp to leave Warwickshire on 154-6 the game was all but up.

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