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27th July 2016

Durham see off Warwickshire at South North

Durham kept up their quarter-final aspirations with a convincing win against Warwickshire in the Royal London Cup tie at South Northumberland CC.

Mark Stoneman, Scott Borthwick and Paul Collingwood all made half centuries as Durham reached their target of 293 with 14 balls to spare.

Collingwood took his team within sight of victory by thrashing 53 off 33 balls, while Stoneman made 56 and Borthwick 66 at the top of the order.

Michael Richardson saw it home with 32 not out but it was Stuart Poynter, on competitive debut for the county, who struck the final blow with a four down the ground.

Put in on an excellent pitch, the visitors were on course for 300-plus while century-maker Sam Hain was sharing a third wicket stand of 143 with Tim Ambrose.

But good bowling at the end of the innings by Usman Arshad, with 3/50, held them in check on 292/7.

Hain made a virtually chanceless 107 while Ambrose scored 86 before Laurie Evans hit a quickfire 30.

Hain played on in the 42nd over when trying to run Keaton Jennings to third man. Ambrose then miscued a drive off Arshad to extra cover as the 46th over yielded only two runs.

Poynter took the catches which brought the only two wickets to fall in the first 41 overs, Will Porterfield falling to Chris Rushworth in the third.

Ian Bell unfurled some elegant cover drives in a stand of 72 with Hain before his first attempt at a big hit brought his downfall when he edged the first ball of Borthwick’s second over.

Stoneman laid the platform for Durham’s chase and Borthwick built the momentum with two sixes in his knock, which came off 67 balls.

And Collingwood provided the big hitting at a crucial time, pulling two sixes over square leg, one of which hit the roof of a neighbouring house. 

The captain went for one big hit too many, slicing a Rikki Clarke slower ball to short third man, but Richardson was equal to the task of gathering the remaining 40 runs with an unbeaten 32.