By Niall Hickman
Twelve months ago it was Durham would came out on top against their northern neighbours as Mark Stoneman’s side beat Yorkshire by 31 runs at Headingley in the Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-final.
Yorkshire will certainly be keen to snatch revenge for that defeat, which helped to send Durham on their way to the Lord’s final, which they won on a memorable September day, overcoming Warwickshire by three wickets at the ‘home’ of cricket.
The last eight tie at Leeds was always going to be a close contest after Stoneman’s century helped post a score of 237 all out after 48.4 overs.
At the halfway stage the hosts probably looked favourites to edge through, especially when Yorkshire’s L-plated opening pair of Lyth and Lees put on over 50 for the opening partnership, but some fine, accurate seam bowling from Chris Rushworth (3-23), John Hastings (2-38) and Paul Collingwood (2-29) sent Durham through to the semi-finals, where they beat Nottinghamshire by a whopping 83 runs, courtesy of a memorable 164 from England all-rounder Ban Stokes.
Ahead of their clash at the Emirates Durham ICG, Rushworth said nothing but the best will see Stoneman’s side conquer Yorkshire again.
‘We have to bounce back from the Surrey defeat and a home tie against our nearest neighbours is a great chance to do just that. We started well in the defence of our cup and we have to get back to winning ways as soon as possible to make sure we get through to the knock-out stages.’
After two wins and a no-result in their first three group matches, Durham came unstuck on Friday, despite limiting their opponents to 271-7. That target looked reachable, but some outstanding seam bowling by all-rounder James Burke knocked the stuffing out of Durham’s middle order and despite some lusty late blows by Hastings, Stoneman’s team fell 49 runs short, recording their first loss in the competition in eight matches.
Rushworth, who took the most wickets (15) for Durham in last season’s Royal London One-Day Cup, said: ‘Surrey batted very well and we all know how dangerous Steve Davies (98) can be. Although we felt their score was within our reach we didn’t there, so now we have to just dust ourselves down and get back to winning ways.’
The Group A clash will be a special occasion for hugely promising Yorkshire-born all-rounder Usman Arshad, who is continuing to progress this season with bat and ball.