Boyce ends Durham's slim hopes

Leicestershire beat Durham by three wickets with one ball to spare in a low-scoring thriller in the T20 Blast North Group clash at Grace Road.

The Foxes looked set for a comfortable win when they restricted Durham to 117 for 9 after putting them into bat on a slow-paced pitch. But they found scoring just as difficult and it took an unbeaten eighth wicket stand of 30 between Matt Boyce and Jigar Naik to see them to victory.

Boyce was the top scorer in the match with 46 off 42 balls and deservedly struck the winning boundary off the penultimate ball of the last over bowled by Chris Rushworth.

Having stumbled to 90 for 7, Leicestershire needed 21 off the last two overs and Naik put them on course for victory by clubbing Mark Wood for a straight six followed by a top-edged four over the wicket-keeper. The over cost 15 runs and after four singles off Rushworth's final over Boyce pulled the fifth delivery to the square-leg boundary.

Graham Onions caused the early damage to Leicestershire's innings, claiming 3 for 15 runs in his four overs. He had Josh Cobb caught behind, Niall O'Brien caught at point while Greg Smith holed out to deep square leg.

Gareth Breese then kept the runs down to a minimum in the middle overs, conceding just 12 in his four overs while also taking the wicket of the dangerous Scott Styris who provided him with a simple return catch.

Tom Wells and Ben Raine fell to the nagging medium pace of Paul Collingwood and it needed Boyce and Naik to dig the Foxes out of a hole.

Durham struggled right through their innings right from the moment Scott Borthwick was caught behind off Charlie Shreck's second ball. Phil Mustard was dropped by O'Brien in the same over and went on to make a top score of 29 before being run out.

Gordon Muchall made an unbeaten 28 but Durham were unable to build any partnerships of note with only four batsmen reaching double figures. Shreck, Raine and Cobb took two wickets each and Collingwood was bowled first ball by Styris as the Foxes virtually ended Durham's slim chances of reaching the quarter-finals.