Will Rhodes scored his maiden Durham century supported by 3 wickets but the hosts fell to a four wicket defeat against Somerset at Taunton in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.
Playing in front of a near-sell-out crowd at the Cooper Associates Ground, 22-year-old left arm seamer Alfie Ogbourne claimed 5-41 as Durham were restricted to 255-9 after winning the toss.
Will Rhodes kept the visitors afloat, staging an assured knock of 100 from 120 balls with 10 fours and sharing in stands of 78 with Haydon Mustard and 58 with Paul Coughlin for the fifth and seventh wickets respectively.
Mustard contributed 38 and Coughlin, the only Durham batter to score at better than a run-a-ball, raised 38 from 30 balls and accrued 2 fours and a six.
Teenage prospect Thomas Rew then anchored Somerset’s run chase, top-scoring with 84 not out from 81 deliveries and striking 8 fours and 2 sixes as the home side reached their target with 22 balls to spare.
He shared in a crucial partnership of 95 for the fourth wicket with his brother, James, who posted 39, while opener Archie Vaughan weighed in with 37 and Ben Green scored 34 not out at the death.
The pick of the Durham bowlers, Rhodes capped a fine all-round performance by taking 3-42 in a losing cause.
Durham’s decision to bat first backfired when they slumped to 67-4 inside 15 overs.
Jake Ball had Emilio Gay caught at the wicket for seven, while the impressive Ogborne persuaded Scott Borthwick to top-edge a pull shot to mid-wicket and then produced a startling yorker to remove Colin Ackermann without scoring.
When Ben Green located Ollie Robinson’s outside edge and James Rew again demonstrated sound glovework, Somerset were on top.
Charged with the task of rebuilding the innings, Rhodes and Mustard played responsibly, adding 50 in 83 balls to redress the balance. Rhodes went to a half century via 63 deliveries and Mustard hit spinner Lewis Goldsworthy over the mid-wicket boundary rope as the Durham innings realised three figures in the 26th over.
Somerset needed a wicket and skipper James Rew recalled Ogborne at the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion end, the left armer inducing the hitherto rock-solid Mustard to send a top-edged pull looping to Green at point with the score 145-5 in the 34th.
When Kasey Aldridge came on at the same end and had George Drissell caught at backward point, the visitors were 170-6 and in danger of under-achieving.
That was the cue for Coughlin to emerge breathing fire, the all-rounder seizing the initiative and relegating Rhodes to a supporting role in a progressive seventh-wicket alliance which added 58 in 7.2 overs.
Rhodes still saw enough of the strike to post his second List-A hundred from 118 balls, clipping Ogborne into the leg side to attain that milestone in the 46th. He was out later in the same over, hoisting Ogborne high to Tom Lammonby on the square leg boundary.
Ogborne then completed his first senior five-wicket haul, inducing Coughlin to hit straight to long-on with the score 237-8 in the 48th.
Somerset’s chase was afforded a super-charged start, Vaughan and Lammonby assuming T20 mode in harvesting nine boundaries between them in an opening stand of 51 in 8.1 overs as Durham’s seamers struggled with their lengths.
But the home side did not have things entirely their own way, Mitchell Killeen affording the visitors much-needed relief by bowling Lammonby for 24. Vaughan was then dismissed for 37 in near-identical fashion by Rhodes with the score 78-2 in the 16th. That soon became 78-3, Goldsworthy shuffling in front of a straight one from Drissell as Durham roared right back into contention.
Just as they did when defeating Middlesex at Radlett a few days earlier, Somerset looked to the Rew brothers to steady the ship. Both oozed calm confidence, going about their business in workmanlike fashion to keep the reply on track, James initially proving the more aggressive and Thomas dropping into a supporting role.
Elder sibling James timed the ball from the outset, playing a superb back-foot force for four off the bowling of Rhodes as Somerset advanced to 124-3 at halfway, requiring a further 133 at 5.2 an over. The 50 partnership arrived via 59 balls, 17-year-old Thomas raising that landmark with a wristy cut for four at the expense of Luke Robinson.
Warming to his task, the teenager fine cut Killeen for four through third man and then whipped him over mid-wicket for six before pulling and cutting Robinson for successive boundaries to overtake his brother. The partnership was worth 95 when Rhodes fooled James Rew into miss-timing a drive and holing out to mid-on for 39.
Undeterred by events at the other end, Rew junior went to his second successive 50 from 45 deliveries. But Rhodes accounted for Josh Thomas, held at long-on, and Fin Hill was run out for a duck with the score 189-6 as Durham threatened to upset the Somerset applecart.
Calm in the face of pressure, the experienced Green offered Rew staunch support thereafter, contributing 34 not out to an unbroken stand of 69 for the seventh wicket.