[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

T20 Blast, North Group

vs Durham

New Road, Worcester

Durham innings: The Pears won the toss and put Durham in to bat on a close and overcast Friday evening in the Midlands, and when Dillon Pennington had Alex Lees caught at mid-off for 2 with the fourth ball of the match, it seemed an inspired decision. But Durham recovered to 45-1 by the end of the powerplay, and though Mitchell Santner had Michael Jones caught at long-on for 39 during his typically economic spell, it otherwise rained boundaries through the middle overs. The visitors continued scoring above ten an over, though Usama Mir bowled Brydon Carse for a whirlwind 39 and Adam Finch had Graham Clark caught at long-on for 78, but a disastrously sixtastic no-ball extravaganza of a final over made the score uncomfortably resemble the pasting the Bears dished out at Edgbaston last Friday, Durham weighing in at 216-4 off the twenty.

Worcs innings: It looked like the same old script as Brett D'Oliveira was bowled for 7 in the second over of the chase, shortly followed by Jack Haynes for 24. But a quickfire 42 from Santner got Worcs back in contention, and though the Kiwi was caught at long-off soon after, a judiciously timed set of boundaries from Adam Hose lifted the Pears up to the par score of 112-3 around the halfway mark, which was when the failing light finally grew too much for the umpires and the points were duly shared.

Match TIED (D/L)

The Verdict: A peculiar old evening, but as a bird-in-the-hand kinda guy, I'll happily take the point over the possibility that Worcestershire might have managed 105 more off 54 balls with seven wickets remaining. It is, however, almost certainly now a straight shootout between Worcs and Derbyshire for a quarter-final place in Sunday's final group game.