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Durham Jets suffered a third consecutive final over defeat in the Natwest T20 Blast, this time against the Leicestershire Foxes at Emirates Durham ICG.
The Jets posted a challenging 177-7 from their allocation of 20 overs, with a season-high knock of 43 from Gordon Muchall and 42 from in-form Scot Calum MacLeod.
Despite a middle-order lapse which saw Usman Arshad pulled out of the attack for successive waist-high no-balls, Paul Collingwood appeared to put the Jets back in command by removing Ned Eckersley for 43.
But Tom Wells made the use of the breeze and a short leg-side boundary to see his side to victory with five balls remaining.
It leaves the Jets with plenty to do in the North Group, lying third bottom but there are still eight games to play.
Captain Mark Stoneman and Phil Mustard gave the Jets a solid base, adding 53 inside the first six overs.
Mustard assumed his usual aggressor role and struck the first six of the game, hitting ex-Durham man Ben Raine into the Don Robson Pavilion..
The skipper fell immediately after the powerplay, lbw for 17 to Jigar Naik’s first delivery, but MacLeod joined Mustard and the pair continued to up the tempo.
Mustard was supremely unlucky to depart for 35, blasting a short Naik ball straight back to the bowler, who knew little about it but clung on for a sharp return catch.
New man Ben Stokes consolidated the early losses before MacLeod injected some impetus into the middle overs, lofting Naik for two sixes over the leg-side in the thirteenth over to move the score on to 109-2.
The Scot perished in the next over, having his stumps re-arranged by Shreck after attempting an audacious flick over fine leg. Stokes was then run-out and it was left to Muchall for a rally towards the final overs.
He played a string of magnificent strokes, including a couple of lofted drives all the way to the off-side boundary, to marshall his side to 177.
Despite a few early boundaries, the home side remained on top and MacLeod continued his good day with a stunning catch to dismiss Foxes captain Josh Cobb. Stationed at long-on, MacLeod leapt forward to take a two-handed catch just centimetres off the ground.
Keaton Jennings then claimed his first T20 wicket, trapping Greg Smith lbw, but it failed to deter Eckersley. The Foxes wicketkeeper sent both Gareth Breese and Collingwood for expensive overs before Arshad was removed from the attack shortly into his second over for bowling two above-waist full tosses.
Scott Borthwick’s ensuing over was expensive and Leicestershire looked on course for victory before Collingwood returned to remove Eckersley and Rob Taylor.
26 were required from the final two overs but Wells used the short leg-side boundary to his advantage, striking three sixes in an over costing 24 to almost see his side home, before Raine scored the winning runs.
The Jets are back in action next Friday (June 27) when we travel to Northants Steelbacks.
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