Lancashire finally shook off their hangover from winning the LV= County Championship last year when their ninth-wicket pair of Ajmal Shahzad and Kyle Hogg saw them home by two wickets with four balls to spare against Durham at Emirates Durham on Saturday.
Chasing 200 to win, Lancashire were cruising at 156 for four, but then they lost four wickets for 12, two of them to Graham Onions, who finished with six for 52 and career-best match figures of 11 for 94 before Shahzad and Hogg scored the last 32 from five overs.
Steven Finn, who will be competing with Onions for James Anderson’s place in the third Test against West Indies at Edgbaston, starting on Thursday, took six in the match as Middlesex beat Sussex by ten wickets at Lord’s.
George Dockrell, the Ireland left-armer, became the leading spin bowler in the championship with 29 wickets — two more than David Wainwright, of Derbyshire — as Somerset drew with Worcestershire at New Road, but it was Craig Kieswetter, the England one-day wicketkeeper, who caught the eye with two wickets on his first bowl in first-class cricket.
Surrey, the Clydesdale Bank 40 champions, dropped their first point in this year’s campaign when rain washed out their match against Hampshire at the Kia Oval after eight overs. Durham enjoyed a happier day yesterday when they crushed Nottinghamshire in the CB40 by 91 runs at Chester-le-Street, with Phil Mustard leading the way by scoring 100 in a total of 310 for four.
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Clydesdale Bank 40:
Group B
Durham v Nottinghamshire Durham (Nottinghamshire won toss): Durham beat Nottinghamshire by 91 runs
Durham M D Stoneman c Wessels b Patel 72
†P Mustard b Carter 100
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B A Stokes c Carter b Patel 23
G J Muchall c Patel b Gurney 34
P D Collingwood not out 25
*D M Benkenstein not out 39
Extras (b 4, lb 6, w 5, nb 2) 17
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Total (4 wkts, 40 overs) 310
W R Smith, S G Borthwick, C Rushworth, L E Plunkett and M E Claydon did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-183, 2-186, 3-242, 4-250.
Bowling: Gurney 8-1-56-1; Carter 8-0-68-1; Franks 5-0-49-0; Patel 8-0-49-2; Mullaney 8-0-56-0; Voges 3-0-22-0.
Nottinghamshire
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M J Lumb c Benkenstein b Rushworth 1
A D Hales b Rushworth 0
M H Wessels b Rushworth 20
S R Patel c Mustard b Rushworth 8
J W A Taylor lbw b Rushworth 1
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A C Voges c Smith b Stokes 74
*†C M W Read c Benkenstein b Plunkett 17
S J Mullaney b Plunkett 7
P J Franks b Stokes 57
A Carter st Mustard b Borthwick 3
H F Gurney not out 13
Extras (lb 6, w 8, nb 4) 18
Total (37.5 overs) 219
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-14, 3-23, 4-31, 5-43, 6-90, 7-101, 8-200, 9-200.
Bowling: Claydon 8-0-47-0; Rushworth 8-1-31-5; Stokes 6-1-25-2; Plunkett 8-0-50-2; Collingwood 4-0-19-0; Borthwick 3.5-0-41-1.
Umpires: R J Bailey and N L Bainton.
No result: Group A: Lord’s: Middlesex v Netherlands, rain, 1pt each. Kia Oval: Surrey 76-1 v Hampshire, rain, 1pt each. Group C: Unicorns v Sussex, rain, 1pt each. Headingley Carnegie: Yorkshire Carnegie v Northamptonshire, rain, 1pt each.
Saturday: Clydesdale Bank 40: Group B: SWALEC Stadium: Surrey Lions 173-9 (S M Davies 58); Glamorgan Dragons 107-9, 23 overs (M Kartik 4-27). Surrey (2pts) beat Glamorgan by 57 runs (D/L method).
Tour match: Leicester (final day of two): West Indians 150-3 v Leicestershire. No play yesterday.
Saturday: LV= County Championship: First division:
Emirates Durham: Durham 102 and 267; Lancashire 170 and 200-8 (A G Prince 51; G Onions 6-52). Lancashire (19pts) bt Durham (3) by two wickets.
Lord’s: Sussex 283 and 225 (B C Brown 53); Middlesex 491 and 19-0. Middlesex (23pts) beat Sussex (4) by ten wickets.
Worcester: Worcesterhire 340 and 129-7; Somerset 298 (J D Shantry 5-58). Worcestedrshire (9pts) drew with Somerset (7).
Second division: Headingley Carnegie: Northamptonshire 253 and 250-6 (A G Wakely 66); Yorkshire 416. Yorkshire (11pts) drew with Northamptonshire (8).