Durham’s Under-14 bowlers ensured a flying start to the county squad’s ECB Royal London Cup campaign with a four-wicket victory over Nottinghamshire last week.
Result: Durham (157/6; Ross Whitfield 48; Mitchell Killeen 3-15) beat Nottinghamshire (154 all out; Freddie McCann 88; Liam Johnsen 2-2) by 4 wickets.
Mitchell Killeen won the toss and decided to have a bowl, and Durham instantly had the scorers working as Killeen dismissed Notts opener Martin Khadoo for four followed by Brett Walton having Sam Watson caught for four in the opening stages of the game.
Wickets continued to fall on completion of the first power-play with Nottinghamshire losing three wickets for 19 runs and struggling at 58/5. However, it was the visiting sides captain Freddie McCann and Faizan Minhas who enabled the Midlands side to get back into game, in a partnership worth 93 runs.
Minhas eventually fell for 37, as he was caught behind, before skipper McCann’s resistance came to an end being caught at long on for a well-made 88 from 83 balls including nine fours and three sixes, Jack Scott picking up the wicket, to claim off figures of 3-57 from ten.
Killeen then rounded it off for Durham with two final wickets to pick up 3-15 from seven overs before Nottingham were bowled out for 154 in 31.1 overs.
In reply, an opening stand of 51 from Hamish Barrie and Ben McKinney set Durham the platform they needed to go on and win the game, as Ross Whitfield batting at number three, added 49 from 58 balls including five fours and two sixes.
Although Durham lost wickets throughout, the run rate was always in their favour, as Killeen added 29 from 21 balls, Durham rounding off their victory in 34.5 overs to win by 4 wickets.