Durham 2nd XI suffer back-to back defeat in Derbyshire
Durham 2nd XI travelled down to Belper Meadows Cricket Club for their final T20 North Group double-header against Derbyshire. Durham suffered back-to-back defeats to end the season on a whimper.
Ben McKinney won the toss for Durham and chose to bowl, a choice which looked to have paid dividends when Luis Reece was dismissed on the first ball of the innings by New Zealander Raymond Toole.
Derbyshire then conjured up three valuable partnerships to take themselves to 108 for four with Leus du Plooy and Anuj Dal making score of 37 and 35. This brought about a flurry of wickets which reduced the hosts to 113 for six.
Derbyshire bounced back, producing an unbeaten 32 run partnership; Vikai Kelly finished 26 not out. Derbyshire finished 145 for six with Toole collecting a pair of wickets, Stuart Allison, George Drissell, Mitchell Killeen and Sebastian Hughes-Piñan all taking one scalp apiece.
Durham were uninspiring in response with the bat, struggling to produce a partnership. The visitors fell to seven for three within 19 balls. Mitchell Killeen scored 10 to help take Durham to 22 for four.
Harry Crawshaw and George Drissell produced Durham’s largest partnership of 20 as the pair made scores 15 and 14. Durham went on to lose three wickets for four runs, falling 60 for eight.
Raymond Toole’s knock of 14 brought Durham to 83 when Hughes-Piñan was dimissed for nine, giving Derbyshire a convincing victory of 62 runs. Tom Hinley took four wickets; Alex Thomson and Ben Aitchison took a pair of wickets each. Suranga Lakmal and Luis Reeceb took a wicket each.
Second time around, Durham chose to bat first hoping to produce a better display. Durham lost Jonathan Bushnell, Haydon Mustard and Ross Whitfield to single figure scores, falling 29 for three.
Durham made back-to-back 35 runs stands with Ben McKinney- who top scored for the visitors with 42, and Harry Crawshaw- who made 27, scoring the majority. Upon Killeen’s dismissal, Durham were 100 for six.
Durham’s seventh wicket partnership was worth 33 with unbeaten scores of 17 and 12 coming from Drissell and Toole to take Durham to 133 for six after 20 overs. Aitchison shone with the ball for Derbyshire again as he was responsible for three Durham wickets.
Durham were given hope with the ball when Raymond Toole dismissed Mitchell Wagstaff for six, leaving the hosts 17 for one. The opening wicket proved to be a flash in the pan as Derbyshire’s second wicket partnership was worth 117, taking them to a nine-wicket victory.
Harry Came top scored with 69 not out with Anuj Dal also making a half-century, sending Durham to a seventh defeat this season.
This leaves Durham in 5th place in the 2nd XI T20 North Group, having won three of 10 games. Leicestershire 2nd XI sit below Durham with two fixtures remaining in their campaign.