Durham’s Second XI remain top of the North Group standings in the Second XI T20 after chalking up a win & a defeat against Derbyshire’s second string at Burnopfield.
Their record stands at six wins & two defeats with four games left to play, though all other teams have played less matches.
Derbyshire lie second in the standings & were condemned to their second defeat inside six games as Chris McBride & Ben Whitehead led Durham to victory in the second game.
After deciding to bat first, McBride opened the batting & led from the front with 42 as Durham posted 149/7.
Scott Steel chipped in with 34 at number three & Barry McCarthy added some late blows with a quickfire 24.
The visitors’ reply was kept in check by some excellent bowling from the Durham line-up, which featured McCarthy & James Weighell. They barely reached a run-a-ball when Scott Palombo fell to Whitehead in the 11th over on 63/3.
From there it was the Whitehead show as the leg-spinner ripped through the middle order, taking 5/18 in his four overs while fellow spinner George Harding helped to keep them behind the game with 1/20 from his allocation.
Despite some late blows from James Sykes, Neil Killeen’s side ran out winners by 22 runs.
The first match earlier in the day ended in a low-scoring, five-wicket defeat with ten balls remaining.
After deciding to bat first, some late Josh Coughlin strikes helped the scoring but the score of 128/7 always looked a little below par & so it proved to be.
There were early wickets in Derbyshire’s chase but a composed 62 not out by Anuj Dal helped anchor the chase, with some late hitting from Dan Wheeldon seeing them home.
Durham’s next two matches are against MCCYCs on Monday, 9 July before the final two games against Leicestershire on Tuesday, 24 July at the Fischer County Ground.