Collingwood takes Durham to victory
Paul Collingwood shrugged off his Twenty20 struggles with the bat to prove a match-winner with the ball as Durham beat Worcestershire by 28 runs at Chester-le-Street
03-Jul-2011
Paul Collingwood shrugged off his Twenty20 struggles with the bat to prove a match-winner with the ball as Durham beat Worcestershire by 28 runs at Chester-le-Street.
Durham leapfrogged their visitors into third place in the Friends Life t20 North Group after Collingwood took 4 for 19. Chasing Durham's 161 for 6, in which Ian Blackwell made 77, Worcestershire were 60 for 1 after seven overs when Collingwood struck twice in two balls in his first over.
Moeen Ali was stumped for 29 and the former England T20 captain then stuck up his left hand to hold a return catch offered by Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan. Collingwood's success prompted Dale Benkenstein to try his own medium pace swingers and Alexei Kervezee hit his first ball over midwicket for six, but then holed out at long-on for 26.
No-one else threatened an innings of substance and Worcestershire were all out for 133 with five balls remaining. After choosing to bat under cloudless skies, Durham's total looked a little below par, despite Blackwell hitting four sixes in his 59-ball innings.
He came to the crease to face the third ball of the match after Phil Mustard was bowled off his pads by Jack Shantry. When Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal came on for the sixth over, Gordon Muchall lofted the second ball straight to deep midwicket to bring in Collingwood with 30 runs from six Twenty20 innings behind him.
The next ball brushed Blackwell's pad and passed just over the stumps as only one run came off the over, and Ajmal continued to pose problems on his way to figures of 3 for 22. Collingwood made 29 off 23 balls and Durham were in need of acceleration with the score on 106 after 15 overs.
Collingwood was bowled going for a big hit off Gareth Andrew, but Benkenstein helped Blackwell take 30 runs off the next 10 balls before Blackwell chipped the last ball of the 17th over straight back to Al Hasan. The ex-Somerset man's score has been beaten only twice by Durham in Twenty20 cricket; by himself with 79 and New Zealander Ross Taylor with 80 in successive matches last year.