Durham beat Warwickshire at Lord's to win Royal London Cup

DURHAM kept their heads in a nail-biting finish to beat Warwickshire by three wickets and win the One-Day Cup. Bears skipper Varun Chopra made 64 as the Bears, having been put in, were dismissed cheaply in bowler-friendly conditions for 165.
Durham were 12-2, but Mark Stoneman made 52 before spinner Jeetan Patel took 4-25 to revive Warwickshire.
Ben Stokes (38no) and Gareth Breese (15no) restored calm to see their side home on 166-7 in the 41st over
Breese, one of only three survivors from Durham’s only previous one-day final appearance in 2007, struck the winning runs in what was likely to be his final appearance for the county.
He also contributed wonderfully with the ball earlier in the day, taking 3-30 from seven overs.
Man of the match Stokes was equally as influential, with figures of 2-25 despite two dropped catches off his bowling, and a cool head with the bat that was in marked contrast to his heroic semi-final innings, when he blasted 164 off 113 balls to see off Notts.
Having lost the toss, the Bears had already avoided a couple of early scares when Will Porterfield edged the first ball of the fifth over to Phil Mustard, who took a good low catch.
Jonathan Trott laboured for 15 balls before being trapped leg before in Paul Collingwood’s first over to make it 29-2.
Collingwood then dropped Tim Ambrose at slip off Stokes on three before making amends without too much damage done when he himself had the Bears wicketkeeper caught at slip – a similar sharp chance to his right snapped up by Breese.
The 50 came up in the 17th over when Chopra guided only the third boundary of the innings through extra cover, but Tim Ambrose’s dismissal led to three wickets going down for just five runs in 18 deliveries.
Laurie Evans gloved a lifter from Stokes to the safe hands of Breese at second slip, and although he then had Rikki Clarke dropped one-handed by Mustard in his next over, Stokes soon rearranged the Warwickshire all-rounder’s stumps to make it 68-5
Chopra and Woakes helped to make a game of it with a sixth-wicket stand of 47, but a brilliant one-handed catch running back by Scotsman Calum MacLeod – who spent two seasons on Warwickshire’s books in 2008 and 2009 – accounted for Woakes.
Shortly after, Rushworth returned to remove Chopra’s leg stump, and Patel perished at short third man after hitting Breese for six off the previous ball.
Breese collected his third wicket when Ollie Hannon-Dolby spooned to mid-on and the innings then ended three overs early when Boyd Rankin was run out going for a second run.
Warwickshire needed early wickets to stand a chance and Clarke struck twice, hitting Phil Mustard’s middle stump before having MacLeod caught at first slip.
Skipper Stoneman responded by bludgeoning 10 boundaries before becoming one of three lbw decisions for Patel as Durham were sent sliding from 60-2 to 86-5.
Collingwood and Stokes appeared to have restored calm with a stand of 31, but with 49 needed, the former steered Hannon-Dolby to point, and then Gordon Muchall became Patel’s fourth lbw victim to make it 130-7.
However, Stokes stood firm and when his fortuitous attempted reverse sweep ran away for four in Patel’s final over, Durham finally sensed that they had it won.
It was left to 38-year-old Jamaican Breese to carve the winning runs to third man and make it two wins out of two for Durham in Lord’s finals.

(BBC Sport)

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