Plunkett shines in Durham romp

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Liam Plunkett built on his team's excellent work with the bat by claiming five wickets as Durham crushed Lancashire by 83 runs this evening

Durham leapfrogged Lancashire in the North Group of the Friends Life t20 courtesy of a comprehensive 83-run victory at the Emirates Durham ICG.

Liam Plunkett was the star of the show for the hosts, posting career-best 20-over figures of 5-31.

Plunkett took a wicket in each of his four overs as Lancashire failed to chase down an imposing target of 201, eventually finishing some way short on 117.

The seamer had Stephen Moore caught by Chris Rushworth at long-on, before David Miller produced an excellent diving catch to account for Steven Croft.

Karl Brown edged Plunkett to Phil Mustard to depart for a first-ball duck and the Teessider then picked up the wickets of Gareth Cross and Jordan Clark to claim his first five-wicket haul in the t20 format.

Plunkett, who also scored a rapid unbeaten 27 with the bat, completed a memorable evening's work when he took a routine catch to dismiss Farveez Maharoof off the bowling of Gareth Breese as Lancashire briefly threatened a recovery.

As it was, the visitors were never in the game once Plunkett struck repeatedly early on, and Durham enjoyed their most comfortable FLt20 victory of the season so far.

Batting first after losing the toss, Durham compiled their third-highest total in this format, with England seamer James Anderson coming in for particular punishment.

Anderson did manage to grab two wickets, including that of top-scorer Dale Benkenstein, but his four overs yielded 54 runs.

Benkenstein thumped six fours and two sixes en route to 60 from 34 balls before holing out to Tom Smith at deep square leg, while Plunkett and Will Smith plundered 25 runs from the final over of the innings.