Gloucestershire beaten in dead rubber

Neil Killeen impressed for Durham on his return from injury with figures of 5-48

With a home quarter-final tie already in the bag, Gloucestershire stumbled to a four-wicket defeat in their final Friends Provident Trophy group game against Durham at the Riverside.

Defeat in five of the first six games had left Durham with no chance of progressing, although they won their last two games without the experienced trio of Steve Harmison, Callum Thorp and Michael Di Venuto.

Neil Killeen did the damage for the Dynamos today, bagging five wickets on his first appearance of the season after a calf injury.

The experienced seamer claimed three scalps in the 49th over, but despite that late stumble Gloucestershire had underlined their one-day prowess by recovering from a poor start to make 254 for eight.

Batting proved tricky in the first hour as the visitors slipped to 72 for five after being put in.

However, New Zealand all-rounder James Franklin and wicketkeeper Steve Adshead put on 175, beating the county’s record sixth-wicket stand against Durham in the competition, which was 126 by Chris Taylor and Ant Botha at Derby in 2006.

Franklin made 85 and Adshead a one-day best of 87 before both holed out in the 49th over, during which Killeen also had Jon Lewis caught to finish with 5-48.

Killeen had earlier bowled Hamish Marshall via an inside edge with the last ball of his second over and had Alex Gidman caught behind with the first ball of his third.

Chris Taylor made a fluent 36 before chopping a ball from Liam Plunkett into his stumps, bringing in Adshead with an average of 50.5 in the competition this season.

Without taking any risks he initially outpaced Franklin and completed a 64-ball 50 by top-edging 17-year-old Ben Stokes’ sixth ball for four.

Stokes’ only over, the 39th, cost 14, as did the next bowled by Gareth Breese, during which Franklin went to his half-century off 74 balls with a huge straight six.

Kyle Coetzer got Durham’s reply off to a brisk start with 36 off 35 balls before half-centuries by left-handers Phil Mustard and Ian Blackwell put them within sight of victory.

Both were severe on young left-arm spinner Vikram Banerjee, who was hit for 60 in 10 overs.

However, Banerjee eventually emerged with three wickets, including Blackwell who was caught at deep midwicket.

Stokes was stumped without scoring soon after, but Dale Benkenstein all but completed the task for Durham, falling for 44 with the scores level and two overs remaining.