ONE of Twenty20’s many faults is that a couple of talented individuals can carry a team to victory.
As Rich Pyrah and Gary Ballance managed that for Yorkshire yesterday, Durham were left to rue their failure to support David Miller, Dale Benkenstein and Paul Collingwood.
It has been a bad weekend for the Riversiders, who travel to Warwickshire tonight.
Dealt back-to-back matches against a side without a win in four, they blew two of their four chances to get the points needed to secure a quarter-final place.
Lancashire have drawn level on points in the northern group with a game in hand. The weather was to blame on Friday, but yesterday there were no excuses.
Gareth Breese took four catches, but Miller, Benkenstein and Collingwood were let down.
It was particularly a pity for Miller who, given the opportunity to build an innings for the first time, responded with a maiden half-century off just 41 balls.
His preparations had been dreadful, driven up from Leeds after only arriving in the country at 8.30am.
“I might do that every time,” he joked after his first flight from Zimbabwe was delayed, causing him to miss his connections.
Along with Benkenstein, he rescued the Riversiders from 39-4 and looked to have given them a good chance of victory.
With some of the 6,500 spectators still flocking in, Yorkshire started sloppily.
Jonathan Bairstow’s overthrow from the first ball allowed Durham to take two when only one was on offer.
In the 15th over the hosts produced a double misfield, the ball going through Andrew Gale before Adam Lyth over-ran it.
Ian Blackwell and Liam Plunkett were fortunate to see throws miss the stumps.
The six Phil Mustard flicked off his pads was also promising, but it would be eight overs before Benkenstein heaved the next over cow corner as the ball nibbled and slowed on a pitch which the previous day was fit only for waterpolo.
While all Yorkshire’s second-string seamers emerged with respectable figures (with a County Championship relegation match tomorrow, Ryan Sidebottom and Ajmal Shahzad were rested) the spinners – normally potent at Scarborough – went for 75 of Durham’s 144 runs in eight overs.
