Lancashire v Durham, Metro Bank One Day Cup Play Off

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Durham comfortably defeated Lancashire by 162 runs in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup eliminator at Emirates Old Trafford and will now travel south to play Middlesex in Sunday’s semi-final at Radlett.

Led by David Bedingham’s 104 and Ollie Robinson’s 76, the visitors posted a formidable 349 for eight in their 50 overs. 

In reply, Lancashire could manage only 187, Joe Moores offering the only substantial resistance with his 42-ball 51, an innings that included four sixes. Leg-spinner Shaq Ghafari finished with four for 36 from 5.1 overs.   

Steven Croft, Head Coach, said:

“I think we were out-performed by Durham in all departments today. I think the toss was pretty important today, but still we probably had a couple of backward steps from the Somerset game.

"At the halfway they probably had 30-40 runs over par. I think they batted well.

“I think we let them slip a little bit and going into the break, we all probably knew it was a tough ask. I thought that they came out and put us under real pressure, and then we sort of stemmed the flow a bit.

“Arav got two very important wickets, and then we sort of let them get away a little bit more. They carried that momentum forward, and we know it in this format. If you're not taking wickets in the middle, it becomes very hard to shut teams down, and especially a good batting line-up like they had.

“We didn't throw too many punches in that run chase. Granted, Taunton was a different beast on that wicket, but I felt like we were a little bit short with the bat again. But Rocky and Moorsey started to put on a great partnership, I think they sort of showed the way.