Excellent performances from Katie Levick and Hollie Armitage helped Durham secure a comfortable six-wicket win in their Metro Bank One Day Cup clash with Surrey.
Surrey batted first on a scorching day in Chester-le-Street, but their innings was marred by wickets at regular intervals, with all of their top four being dismissed in the 20’s. The visitors never recovered from that as Mady Villiers and Levick tore through the rest of their batting line-up to bowl them out for 179.
Durham were tasked with chasing 180, but they fell to 81 for four in pursuit of the target, with Bethan Miles their chief tormentor. However, captain Armitage anchored the rest of the chase with an unbeaten 76 and Durham reached the target with 13.2 overs to spare.
Surrey’s openers made a positive start after they won the toss and elected to bat, with Bryony Smith picking up back-to-back boundaries off a Trudy Johnson over. However, Villiers picked up a wicket with her first ball, as the dangerous Smith was out caught and bowled.
Rachel King responded by hitting the first six of the day by launching a Levick ball over the ropes, but the Durham spinner hit back two balls later and got King lbw. Debutant Ivreen Dhaliwal then chipped a delivery from Abi Glen straight to mid-on as Durham checked Surrey’s progress once again.
Alice Davidson-Richards was the next to fall at the hands of Villiers, as she picked out the back-pedalling Armitage in the covers. There was another wicket from the next ball, as Paige Scholfield was run out after a calamitous mix-up with new batter Jemima Spence.
Villiers then claimed her third wicket as she got Aylish Cranstone lbw, but Spence and Izzy Sidhu steadied the ship briefly.
Levick was then reintroduced to the attack and picked up back-to-back wickets, bowling both Sidhu and Laura Harris. The leg-spinner then accounted for Miles, before Sophia Turner wrapped up Surrey’s innings as she got Dani Gregory caught and bowled.
Durham started their chase of 180, but they lost a wicket early on as Mia Rogers was lbw off the bowling of Smith. The hosts then lost a second as Emma Marlow was lbw at the hands of Davidson-Richards.
That brought the key Durham pair of Armitage and Villiers together, but the latter was dismissed off the bowling of Miles as she was caught at mid-off. Emily Windsor then fell at the hands of Miles after she chipped one up to backward point.
Australian Heather Graham then joined Armitage at the crease and the experienced duo settled a few nerves for Durham. They then started to accelerate as Armitage slammed two Harris deliveries to the boundary and she brought up her fifty.
Armitage and Graham then saw Durham to the target, with the hosts bagging a vital bonus point win which puts them in contention for a top-three finish.