Smith plays decisive role in Durham’s drive to final

Jul 23 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

WITH a name like Will Smith, Durham’s 24-year-old batsman is a marketing dream for the self-styled “Men in Black”. Yet in a team packed with star names in truth he is something of an afterthought to most spectators.

But county cricket is decided by the lesser lights as often as the stellar attractions and Smith, one of only two men in Durham’s line-up not to have tasted international cricket, played the decisive role as the Riversiders were finally handed the Twenty20 Cup Finals Day place they deserved a fortnight late.

Smith’s sensible 51 was the bedrock of Durham’s 163-8 and although his part-time off-spin was never going to be needed in a side overflowing with all-rounders, he still played a decisive hand in the field with a well-judged catch and an excellent run out.

With Liam Plunkett providing fireworks either side of the interval, it ensured Durham will travel to the Rosebowl on Saturday one very short game of cricket away from a crack at the unprecedented riches offer in this autumn’s inaugural Twenty20 Champions League.

After the controversy over Yorkshire’s Azeem Rafiq rather generously handed Glamorgan a second chance in the quarter-finals and forced Durham to squeeze a rearranged game somewhere into their crammed schedule, there was always the worry that justice might not be done at the Riverside last night.

Glamorgan put Durham into bat and by the time Smith – shunted down the order to accommodate England’s limited overs captain Paul Collingwood and West Indies Test star Shivnarine Chanderpaul – came to the crease his side were in grave danger at 26-3. But with an array of talented batsmen to come and the right-hander in prime form, he held his nerve to set the platform for a winning total. In the five overs after the fielding restrictions were lifted, Durham made just 25 runs – pedestrian by Twenty20 standards.

Fresh from his double 100 in the County Championship the previous week, Smith made the most of his form and good fortune having being dropped on 36, then surprisingly not being given lbw by Tim Robinson on 45.

It took 37 deliveries for him to record only the eighth half-century by a Durham player in Twenty20 cricket at the Riverside. But the following ball he was run out by Dean Cosker at gully after being sent back by Shaun Pollock, whose running between the wickets initially looked hesitant after a couple of weeks away from the Riverside sat in various commentary boxes. Once he got his eye in, though, the South African was at his destructive best as the lower middle order rounded off Durham’s innings superbly.

When Phil Mustard, Collingwood, Chanderpaul and Michael Di Venuto were all dismissed before their team had made 50 – the first three through poor shots, the latter an excellent return catch by Robert Croft – Durham looked unlikely to post a par score on a better-than-usual Riverside pitch. But any batting line-up with Ben Harmison at 10 is ridiculously long. The all-rounder from Ashington did not get to the striker’s end, but numbers seven, eight and nine – Pollock, Gareth Breese and Plunkett – made the difference.

All hit maximums, Pollock making 20 from 12 balls, Breese scoring as many in three less.

Plunkett came to the crease with three balls of the innings left. He hit the first for two, leaned back on the second for a massive six then drove a full ball to the boundary as Durham spanked James Harris’ over for 22.

Suddenly the force was with them. Plunkett continued it with the first ball of the reply, nipping it back to remove Richard Grant’s off stump. A strange over which included two wides was rounded off when he slanted the ball across David Hemp and had him caught behind.

Smith’s excellent low catch at cover dismissed Mike Powell and with the miserly Pollock bowling from the other end, Glamorgan were 29-3 when Ben Harmison came on for the seventh over – 15 runs behind where Durham had been during what they thought was a poor start.

If Glamorgan had not already realised it was not to be their day, third umpire Steve Garratt proved it. Jamie Dalrymple drove down the ground at 54-3 and Steve Harmison’s right foot instinctively touched it on to the stumps to run out Tom Maynard. It was probably the right decision but the television evidence looked slightly circumstantial.

Dalrymple (32) and Mark Wallace (26) kept their side in the hunt and although they needed “only” to match what Durham did in the second half of their innings, they did not have the late-order power and did have the pressure of a mounting run-rate.

Once Wallace lost his middle stump to Steve Harmison’s slower ball, the last six wickets fell in as many overs. Next up for Durham in this competition is Middlesex, with a win guaranteeing Dale Benkenstein’s side in a “Champions League” competition with a £2.5m prize fund on offer.