After a very wet day in Chester-le-Street by the time gates had opened the cloud began to clear and sun peeked through when the first ball was bowled with Durham winning the toss and electing to field on Emirates Day.
The Durham bowlers got off to a good start and although no wickets in the first five overs they restricted the Lightning’s run tally with some good bowling with Ben Stokes and Chris Rushworth on song early to have the visitors just over a run a ball at 31-0.
Young T20 debutant Ryan Pringle got the breakthrough in 11th over when Prince found the hands of Muchall to dismiss the opener for 32 . Pringle then claimed his second just two overs later when he clean bowled Croft for 10.
Durham continued to bowl well but the visitors soon got their run rate creeping up with a good partnership between opener Moore and Simon Katich who took their partnership past 50 in the 17th over.
Their partnership was finally undone in the final over after a mix-up left Moore short of his ground giving Ben Stokes a run out.
Moore’s wicket ended the 68 run stand and a 75 run innings for the opener which came off 72 balls and included 8 fours and a six.
Lancashire ended their innings on 165-3 after Rushworth and Stokes bowled well in the final stages.
Durham’s chase started well with openers Mark Stoneman and Phil Mustard on fire early, finding the boundaries on their way to a 53 run opening stand.
A mix-up in between the wickets then left Stoneman short of his crease, dismissed for 33 and Durham were then dealt another blow with Stoneman’s opening partner Mustard also finding himself back in the dugout the very next ball, caught behind for 19.
Scott Borthwick was the next to depart when he went long and found the hands of Brown adding just the one to the scoreboard with Durham 60-3.
It was then former England T20 skipper and current England T20 team member Ben Stokes at the crease with the job infront of them.
The visitors bowling attack was up for the challenge however and restricted the pair’s contribution to the scoreboard.
The Dynamos pair had the tough challenge with 80 required off 42 balls when skipper Paul Collingwood went lbw for 19 bringing big hitter Gordon Muchall to the crease.
Ben Stokes and Muchall then got going and picked the run rate up with Stokes hitting balls into the crowd on several occasions giving Durham a sniff of victory.
However they lost the big wicket of Muchall who too looked to go long and was caught by Prince for 14 in 17th over and then for the second time in the innings lost a wicket the next ball with Stokes looking for more runs, caught out for 34.
Will Smith and Ryan Pringle came to the crease needing 38 from the last three and Pringle in his debut looked like he could win it off his bat after some big hits until one attempt fell short departing for an entertaining 14.
Smith found the boundary and got it down to 17 off the final over but after Wood was bowled with just 2 balls remaining Durham fell 10 runs short and Lancashire took the points in the opening match of the Friends Life t20 season.
Durham next face Yorkshire at Scarborough on Sunday.
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Scorecard vs Lancashire available here