FRIENDS PROVIDENT t20, Emirates Ground:
Durham 225-2 (20 ovs) beat Leicestershire 154 (17.2 ovs) by 71 runs
Match scorecard

Taylor has played 25 Test matches for New Zealand

Ross Taylor's 33-ball 80 carried Durham to their highest ever score in Twenty20 cricket and a 71-run victory over Leicestershire at Chester-le-Street.

Taylor hit nine sixes in his unbeaten effort after Phil Mustard had plundered 65 to take the hosts to 225-2.

That eclipsed the 215-6 they racked up to beat Warwickshire on Friday.

Despite 39 from Jacques du Toit, Leicestershire slipped to 84-5 before Paul Collingwood (4-13) mopped up the tail to bowl the visitors out for 154.

There was no sign of the carnage to come when Nadeem Malik conceded just two runs from the opening over of the match.

But captain Mustard and Ian Blackwell (37) took the score to 102 in the 12th over before Mustard was caught in the deep on the leg side off the bowling of Claude Henderson.

Blackwell sliced Matthew Hoggard to point soon after to bring Dale Benkenstein and Taylor together for an unbroken third-wicket partnership of 117 - a Durham record for any wicket in the shortest form of the game.

The stand took the home side to the highest score of this season's Friends Provident t20, while Taylor passed Blackwell's Durham record T20 score of 79.

Leicestershire were in need of a big contribution from Australian Brad Hodge, but he cut Mitch Claydon to Taylor at point for just 10.

The hosts managed to keep up with the required rate but lost wickets all too regularly.

World Twenty20-winning captain Collingwood picked up four of the last five to fall in the second of two FP t20 games he has been allowed to play in before England's one-day internationals against Scotland and Australia.

BBC Radio Newcastle's Martin Emmerson:
"Durham fans have waited seven years for their side to score 200 in a Twenty20 match and now they have done it twice in the space of three days.

"Taylor's 80 runs from 33 balls was savage. The brutality was gorgeous as he raced to 50 in just 22 balls and smashed nine sixes and four fours. Breath-taking stuff.

"It is a record win for Durham and a record defeat for Leicestershire. Poor Harry Gurney also now has the honour of being the most expensive bowler in a Twenty20 match against Durham."

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