Durham boys’ Under 18’s progressed into the quarter final of the ECB National cup after a thrilling clash against Yorkshire at Weetwood, with Durham progressing by virtue of losing less wickets in a reduced overs affair due to rain.
After losing the toss and being put in to bat, Robbie Bowman was the first man to fall for 3 and Callum Gaffney for 6 as Durham were struggling early on at 24/2.
Charlie Coulthard and skipper Hayden Mustard then set about building a strong base as they put together a 70 run partnership for the third wicket.
Coulthard raced to 42 off 40 before being removed after striking three fours and two maximums. Mustard reached his 50 and smashed his way to 65 before being bowled. Luke Symington and George Darwood saw Durham through to their 25 overs on 158/4.
Henry Hopkins dismissed Jack Redshaw for 19 with Ishaq Khan taking the catch before Darwood had Noah Kelly caught behind by Mustard for a five ball duck to leave Yorkshire 33-2 early on.
Hopkins then cleaned up Will Bennison to reduce Yorkshire to 35-3. Alex Cree showed some resistance to the Durham bowling attack by launching an counter attack, but was starved of support when Isaac Light was runout.
Cree then fell for 45 off just 32 deliveries, Bowman catching him to give Darwood his second wicket to leave Yorkshire reeling at 103-5. D
Darwood then bowled Jawad Akhtar for 3 and had Harvey Round caught by Mustard to leave the visitors in even more trouble at 109-7, as Durham returned figures of 4/18 from 5 overs.
Sebastian Hughes-Pinan joined in on the wickets by having Leo Wilson stumped by Mustard for 17 as the visitors did well to constrict the run rate.
Louie Owens and Joshua Hoyle tried to take Yorkshire to their total, but the rain returned to thwart them as Durham secured the victory with a tie on DLS, progressing having lost fewer wickets.