Friends Provident Trophy final, Lord's:
Durham 312-5 (50 ovs) bt Hampshire 187 (41 ovs) by 125 runs
 Dale Benkenstein collects the trophy after Durham's victory |
Durham earned their first major success with a 125-run win over Hampshire in the Friends Provident Trophy final. Hants resumed needing another 155 from 17.3 overs, adding 16 before losing remaining frontline batsmen Nic Pothas and Dimi Mascarenhas in seven balls.
Both players hit boundaries but Pothas holed out to deep mid-wicket for 47 and Mascarenhas was bowled by England's Liam Plunkett, who impressed with 3-42.
Durham made 312 on Saturday and reduced Hants to 158-5 before rain intervened.
That challenge quickly increased when play finally resumed almost two hours later than scheduled on a grey Sunday before a smattering of spectators.
Plunkett immediately found an accurate line and length and his three dot balls to complete the 33rd over took the required rate above nine an over.
The first boundary came in the second full over of the day when a Plunkett long hop was hooked for four by Mascarenhas to ensure the rate did not reach double figures.
It was the only blemish in an impressive spell and a wicket maiden confirmed Hampshire's fate as Plunkett bowled Mascarenhas, who tried a desperate heave and saw his off-stump knocked back.
 | 606: DEBATE |
Collingwood backed up Plunkett with some accurate and clever variations of pace, giving the tailenders very little opportunity to score the boundaries needed.
His England colleague Chris Tremlett skied to mid-on and after Powell spooned a simple catch, Plunkett had the distinction of clinching Durham's first trophy in 16 years as a first-class county when he shattered Shane Warne's stumps with a yorker.
Durham dominated from the moment Warne won the toss and put them in under cloudy skies on Saturday morning.
Phil Mustard was strong on both sides of the wicket and motored on despite the departure of Michael Di Venuto, who was brilliantly caught by Michael Carberry at mid-wicket.
The wicket-keeper batsman was a run away from a deserved half century when James Bruce won an lbw verdict with a ball which pitched outside leg-stump.
West Indies left-hander Shiv Chanderpaul, who was virtually immovable against England earlier in the summer, made the most of that escape by reaching 50 off 60 balls, with the highlights big sixes off Tremlett over mid-wicket and a swept maximum off Sean Ervine.
Kyle Coetzer needed four more deliveries to reach his half century and when he thrashed Ervine, a match-winner at Lord's in the 2005 final, into the top tier of the grandstand, it looked grim for Hampshire.
 Shane Warne was the last man out as Hampshire fell well short |
But Coetzer prodded the next ball tamely to Warne at short extra-cover and Chanderpaul was run out when Collingwood rejected a second run.
From looking set to wreak carnage, Durham slowed up, but skipper Dale Benkenstein kickstarted them again by heaving Ervine and Daren Powell for maximums.
The departure of Collingwood actually helped up the scoring, as Ottis Gibson smote Tremlett over the mid-wicket fence and through extra-cover - the tall paceman's response a wild beamer.
Benkenstein hit the last three balls of the innings from Powell - whose 10 overs cost 80 - for six, four and four to put the seal on the highest score in a 50-over domestic Lord's final.
Only Warwickshire, who hit 322 to beat Sussex in 1993, had scored more to win one batting second - but that was off 60 overs.
Hampshire's sizeable task took on herculean proportions as Gibson found the edge of Michael Lumb and Ervine's bat and Di Venuto held on at second slip.
Pietersen survived the hat-trick ball but edged just beyond Di Venuto off Neil Killeen before inevitably falling to that man Gibson, who pinned him in front of off-stump with one he angled in.
Former England batsman John Crawley could have gone on a host of occasions but rode his luck to make 68.
Killeen and Graham Onions came within a whisker of bowling him, Gibson thought he had run him out by flicking a Pietersen drive on to the stumps at the non-striker's end, and mis-timed drives fell short of fielders on countless occasions.
Crawley finally recovered his poise to inflict some lusty blows, thrashing Killeen violently over point and flicking Liam Plunkett and Onions off his pads.
Carberry tried to force the pace too and twice carved Plunkett backward of point before trying to chop an Onions delivery that was too close to him and seeing his stumps disturbed.
Like Crawley, Nic Pothas also had his fair share of fortune, launching several wild swishes and reverse-sweeps which made poor contact.
But the duo took the total past 100 in the 23rd over and Crawley swatted Gareth Breese over mid-wicket to complete his half century in 72 balls.
Their partnership was worth 67 when Collingwood nipped the last ball of his second over back to beat Crawley's defences and leave Hampshire needing something truly remarkable, which proved beyond even Warne.
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