England saw a return to a 50 over domestic one day competition this year, with the final of the Royal London One Day Cup at Lord’s – the Home of Cricket. Despite the thick cloud cover last Saturday morning, it proved to be a golden sunset for Durham as they beat the Warwickshire Bears by 3 wickets.

 

The crowds started to gather early for what was to be the first domestic 50 over final since the Friend’s Provident Trophy in 2009 when Hampshire; formally known as the Hampshire Hawks beat the Sussex Sharks by 6 wickets. The domestic cricket season seems to start earlier and finishes later every year. Competition from other sports such as soccer may be one of the reasons why Lord’s was at best only half full, which was a disappointment to the sponsors, the ECB and the ground owners – the Marylebone Cricket Club. Weather may also have contributed to the poor attendance with the flood lights having to stay on for the whole day.

 

Having won the toss Durham elected to bowl first. This seemed to be a good decision given the overcast conditions. The Bears skipper Varun Chopra scored a dogged but invaluable 64. Only England all-rounder Chris Woakes and the promising Ateeq Javid scored more than 20. Javid has been around the first XI scene since 2010 having made a major impression with the Birmingham and District Premier League champions of 2014, West Bromwich Dartmouth.

 

Durham’s Chris Rushworth fresh from his 15 wicket tally in the previous County Championship game for Durham against Northamptonshire took advantage of some helpful bowling conditions. His opening spell of 7 overs was exceptional accounting for the Irish left hander Will Porterfield.  Additionally England all-rounder Ben Stokes maintained the pressure with the quickest bowling on show for the day. He soon dismissed the former Surrey batsmen Laurie Evans, the man of the match in the NatWest T20 Blast, with a short ball with Evans only managing to fend the ball away to Gareth Breeze at second slip. He also bowled Rikki Clarke who ambitiously tried to whip a full swinging delivery through mid-wicket.

 

Chopra’s defiant innings lasted until the 37th over when he was bowled behind his legs by Rushworth with the score on 123-7. The other contributors with the ball were veteran Paul Collingwood (2-36 in 10 overs) and the vastly experienced Jamaican Gareth Breeze (3-30 off 7 overs) with his off spinners.

 

Durham’s reply started badly losing wicket keeper Phil Mustard and the Scotsman MacLeod both to Rikki Clarke for ducks. At this stage Durham were 12-2.Left handed skipper Mark Stoneman provided an exhilarating innings hitting 7 fours in a fluent innings of 52 with a strike rate of 100. Stoneman’s innings was by far the most fluent of the day. It remains to be seen whether Stoneman’s effort was enough to catch the eye of the England’s selectors for the winter tours of Sri Lanka and the World Cup in Australasia.

 

One of the surprises of the day was that a spinner should play such a prominent part in the proceedings. Kiwi spinner Jeetan Patel with his fast off breaks found himself bowling to a number of left handers; Stoneman, Scott Borthwick and Keaton Jennings were all trapped leg before. Patel ended up with figures of 10 overs 2 maidens 4-25. This was a great attempt to overturn history: no side has successfully defended such a low total as 165 in a one day final.

 

Stokes was a major contributor to the Durham innings with 38 not out along with two wickets that he had bagged earlier in the day and he was named man of the match. Gareth Breeze who is shortly to leave Durham after a distinguished one day career joined Stokes when the score was 130-7. Between them Stoakes and Breeze knocked off the winning runs in the 41st over. The result was also a triumph for yet another veteran, Paul Collingwood with 2 wickets and 21 invaluable runs.

 

Warwickshire are already runners up in the County Championship and won the NatWest T20 Blast earlier in the season. They also performed better in the group stages of the completion finishing third in group B, whereas Durham finished fourth in the same group. However on the day Durham prevailed to give them a fifth piece of silverware since 2007, more than any other county. 

 

David Farrington Ewell Castle School