FRIENDS PROVIDENT t20, Edgbaston:
Durham 215-6 beat Warwickshire 200-7 by 15 runs
Match scorecard

Ian Blackwell hit nine fours and two sixes in his blistering 79 from 49 balls

Ian Blackwell and Ross Taylor trumped Warwickshire with high-powered half-centuries as Durham registered a first FP t20 win of the season at Edgbaston.

Taylor romped to 64 in 28 balls and Blackwell hit 79, the highest score by a Durham batsman, as they passed 200 in Twenty20 for the first time.

Warwickshire made a valiant response to Durham's 215-6, only losing by 15 runs.

England's Ian Bell starred again, with 85 in 47 balls, but once he had gone, the Bears ran out of steam on 200-7.

The early loss of the Bears' other England man Jonathan Trott, caught behind cheaply again after driving Mitch Claydon's first ball for four, could have signposted a hefty defeat but Bell had other ideas.

Celebrating his recall to the England one-day squad, Bell went close to upsetting the odds in a brilliant performance that stretched Durham almost to breaking point.

With the home side only 52 short with five overs to go, there was huge relief when Steve Harmison broke a stand of 98 with wickets in successive balls.

Gareth Breese held the catches when Bell (nine fours and four sixes) skewed to backward point and Jim Troughton then top edged to mid-wicket on 33.

Ian Bell has hit 66 and 85 for the Bears in successive innings in three nights

That was the end of Warwickshire's challenge, although they kept going until Steve Harmison (4-30) struck twice in the final over.

Durham's innings began with an early setback as Phil Mustard fell to Chris Woakes' third delivery but from that point the evening turned against the England Lions seam bowler.

Having set an economy record for his county with a return of 4-1-9-1 against Derbyshire on Wednesday, he this time conceded five times as many runs, the bulk of these during a rampaging second-wicket stand of 113 in 58 balls.

Taylor was almost unstoppable as he peaked with a 4-4-6-6-6 sequence in five balls from Imran Tahir and Rikki Clarke.

In all he plundered three fours and six sixes before he departed to a catch on the long-off boundary off Darren Maddy.

Unusually for Blackwell, he was often the lesser partner in the big-hitting stakes, although he still reached his own 50 from only 34 balls.

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