Result: Birmingham Bears (155/1; Chopra 97*) beat Durham Jets (154/9; Collingwood 40*, Woakes 3/25) by nine wickets
A career-best T20 innings of 97* from Varun Chopra consigned the Durham Jets to defeat by nine wickets against the Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston.
Paul Collingwood’s second succesive unbeaten score of 40+ as the visitors scrambled to 154/9.
A rapid start by the Bears openers had Durham on the back foot from the off, with the Jets bowlers unlucky on ocassions.
Scott Borthwick bowled the former in the 10th over but the hosts were already well ahead and cruised to victory.
Chopra was the mainstay of the innings, falling just three short of a maiden T20 ton to deny the Jets a third straight win.
Where Durham had earlier lost wickets at the top of the order, Birmingham’s solid opening stand of 94 at almost ten-per-over put the hosts well on their way.
There was little strike rotation in the powerplay overs but a steady stream of boundaries, mostly from Chopra, kept the run-rate ticking well above the required rate.
Mark Stoneman introduced his spinners to try and stifle their advances but Ryan Pringle’s sole over went for 19 as Chopra passed 50 from 30 balls, including four sixes.
There was brief success as Scott Borthwick clean bowled Bell for 25 in his second over.
But his fellow opener continued to put Durham’s attack to the sword as new batsman William Porterfield needed to do little more than support his team mate.
The hundred pursuit fell short on 97 as an attempted slog with two runs required fell short and the pair settled for a victory.
Despite Collingwood’s lusty blows for a second game running, it always felt Durham were a few short of a score to really challenge the hosts.
Skipper Stoneman began with a bang, scoring two boundaries from the first over, but fell in the second as Oliver Hannon-Dalby caught the edge and wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi completes the catch.
Consecutive fours from Phil Mustard encouraged the visitors but a wicket maiden followed, Rikki Clarke removing Graham Clark, which somewhat restricted Durham’s advances.
Michael Richardson also scooped Clarke to short fine leg as the powerplay went by on 40/3, before Mustard was tied up by a Woakes short ball which took the shoulder of the bat and straight to Josh Poysden at long leg.
A partnership of 42 between Pringle and Keaton Jennings was therefore welcome as the Jets sought to rebuild after those early wickets.
The off-spinner assumed the role of the aggressor, striking Poysden and Jeetan Patel for six in consecutive overs to push the scoring rate after half way.
But his departure sparked a run of four wickets for 27 runs; Pringle was undone by Ateeq Javid’s quicker ball, Patel had Jennings caught at cover while Woakes returned for two more, including Borthwick first ball.
Collingwood, having played a similar role against the Outlaws on Wednesday, hauled the visitors up to 154 with 30 from the final two overs.
Usman Arshad was run out attempting a third off the final ball of over 19 but his sacrifice allowed the 40-year-old the strike from Hannon-Dalby’s final over.
He made it count with two maximums, the second of which came off the final ball to haul Durham above the 150 mark.
But it proved not enough as Chopra’s excellence left the Jets with two wins and two defeats in this year’s Natwest T20 Blast ahead of tomorrow’s game with the Leicestershire Foxes.