Suppiah and Durston give a good account of themselves on their NUL debuts

Somerset Sabres travelled to Chester le Street to face Durham Dynamoes in the NUL National League on Monday in a match that was always going to be difficult, following so close on the heels of the C and G Lord's final match at the weekend.

After winning the toss and batting first Somerset lost the wicket of Matt Wood early on before Marcus Trescothick(41) and Keith Dutch (64),who was promoted to number three, added 70 runs for the second wicket.

The Sabres suffered three run outs in their innings but there were useful contributions from Rob Turner(24) and debutant Arul Suppiah(22) before the innings closed on 204 for 9.

The Somerset opening attack of Matt Bulbeck and Simon Francis produced an impressive opening spell and had reduced the hosts to 31 for 2 before Gordon Muchal(81) and Aussie Brad Hodge(77) added 128 for the third wicket.

Both Muchal and Hodge were dismissed by Ian Blackwell, but by then it was almost too late and the Dynamoes went onto to record an eight wicket victory over their already relegated rivals.

At the end of the match Somerset assistant coach Mark Garaway told me: "This was a disappointing result, after we created three good winning opportunities during the game."

He continued: "We had a great start when we batted, but then had three unfortunate run outs. When we fielded we had fourteen fantastic overs at the start from Simon Francis and Matt Bulbeck , but we didn't quite put the squeeze on and then they got away. We reined them back in toward the end but missed a couple of chances."

He concluded: "Both of our new young players did some good things. Arul Suppiah looked very comfortable, he carried on what he has been doing for the Seconds all season and also gave an excellent fielding display. Wes Durston will probably be a bit disappointed with his performance, but when he bowled he stuck to it well, despite having a few runs hit of him at one stage."