Ollie Robinson made a useful 76 to help Durham past Middlesex in their One-Day Cup semi-final.
94 Cricket Blog 1.
Bedingham puts Lancashire’s hopes to sleep Durham served up some of Lancashire’s own medicine, as the home side tasted a brutal quarter-final defeat at Old Trafford.
Three days earlier, Lanky – powered by centuries from Keaton Jennings (relatively steady) and Rocky Flintoff (very explosive) – had racked up so big a first innings that Somerset never got close.
Now, in the knockout phase, Durham dished out the same treatment.
David Bedingham – along with Simon Harmer, probably the best county import of the last decade – made a century and Ollie Robinson a handy 76, as only Lancashire’s George Balderson was able to bowl his overs at under a run a ball.
It was, perhaps, too much to expect more fireworks from Jennings and Flintoff, but no other Lancashire batter stepped up to accept the responsibility to make a century and Joe Moores, after facing just eight balls in his Hundred sojourn, was the only one to cross 50.
Durham’s Luke Robinson delivered a John Player League-esque analysis of 8-1-22-1 and Shafiqullah Ghafari’s wrist spin picked up four wickets, as the home crowd left Old Trafford disappointed again.
2.
Haynes has the manual for a chase It’s usually said of T20 cricket that a couple of outstanding performances can win a match, but List A cricket usually needs a more thoroughgoing team effort to secure a victory.
But not always.
At 207-4 with more than 11 overs to go, Yorkshire will have been eyeing a target in excess of 300, but the pace of Olly Stone and Dillion Pennington, and the spin of Farhan Ahmed, got among them and the Tykes fell well short of expectations, 273/9 when the innings closed, with Nottinghamshire back in the game.
Any sense of flatness in the innings break was dispelled immediately as Ben Coad and George Hill demolished Nottinghamshire’s top order, the scoreboard showing 1/3, as Kyle Verreynne walked to the crease.
He lost George Munsey not long afterwards and Yorkshire barbecue charcoal sales looked set to take a hit on the following Sunday, with fans planning another day out.
But Verreynne is a classy operator and he found a solid pro in Jack Haynes at the other end as each batter notched a ton.
Even after such heroics, Pennington had to apply a bit of the long handle with just Brett Hutton and an incapacitated Lydon James to come.
That Nottinghamshire have won a lot of cricket matches in the last couple of seasons surely helped them dash Yorkshire’s hopes on a bad day at the office for the Roses counties.
3.
Shaikh rattles Nottinghamshire While all that was going on, Leicestershire and Middlesex sheltered from the heat courtesy of the byes they enjoyed from winning their groups.
On Sunday, Nottinghamshire made the short journey south to Grace Road seeking the win that would ensure the home county would play at Trent Bridge in September’s final.
But they had not planned for two Leicestershire youngsters, who had plans on pooping that home town party.
Hamza Shaikh, just 20 and recently recruited from Warwickshire, made a century with the other top seven batters all contributing to a total of 303/7, firmly in ‘something-to-bowl-at’ territory.
This competition has given lots of chances to tyros to show their worth and more, like Shaikh, will surely look beyond their ‘home’ counties to develop, especially if squads can be depleted by franchise calls at short notice – carpe diem and all that.
Alex Green is a Leicestershire academy product and still a teenager, but, once introduced as third change, he got among the wickets, taking the key one of Verreynne, just as the visitors were mustering for the charge.
Notts were all out 24 runs short and can concentrate on retaining the County Championship, starting this week at the Oval.
4.
Hollman hunts down picture perfect victory Fifty years ago, a Gillette Cup semi-final win like Middlesex’s would have been the talk of bars and playgrounds up and down the country, with a slot of its own on Sports Review of the Year.
Luke Hollman was the hero, resurrecting a chase that looked a lost cause, seven down with 100 still to get.
He had done his bit with the ball earlier too, snaffling Will Rhodes for 80 and quarter-final heroes Bedingham and Robinson, as Durham were restricted to 254/7.
That looked plenty as Durham’s attack, led by a fired up Ben Stokes who felt he got the rough end of a decision when batting, kept taking wickets until Tom Helm joined Hollman, hopes not quite forlorn, but adjacent for sure.
Hollman and Helm had all the time they needed, so they settled down and defended the good balls back to the bowlers and hit the bad ones to or over the fence – it sounds easy when you put it like that.
There was still work to be done when Helm was out for a vital 40, but Hollman farmed the strike and Noah Cornwell, akin to Jack Leach at Headingley in 2019, did the needful.
Some people will tell you that the likes of Hollman, a journeyman pro very unlikely to represent his country, should not have a place in the congested calendar of English professional cricket.
Good luck selling that argument to Middlesex supporters watching one of their own hit the winning runs in a chase for the ages.
5.
Batter of the One-Day Cup To use an unfair phrase, Noah Thain was barely a household name in his own household before being pushed up the order to open in the One-Day Cup.
After a breakthrough season in 2025, the 20-year-old could not get in Essex’s Championship XI more than three times and had hit just one 50 all season.
Sure he’s young enough to come again, but the door marked ‘bits and pieces merchants’ was open and beckoning him forwards.
Transformed by the added responsibility of going in up top, he has put together a superb run of scores, including two centuries and four other scores above 70, to register 571 runs at 71 and a strike rate of 90.
His career was not quite in danger of being lost, but what a boost this much-derided competition has given to a young player who must make the most of it in the remainder of this season and the next.
6.
Bowler of the One-Day Cup Yorkshire’s Ben Coad is at the other end of his career: not quite done yet but no longer such a regular in these columns that I gave him his own nickname: Betsy.
Prior to the One-Day Cup, he had taken just four wickets in the Championship this season, a return that will get CEO’s fingers twitching when contract renewals come round.
His brand of fast-medium accuracy with a bit of movement can get too predictable for the Blast, power hitters lining him up.
But, for 50-overs cricket, with batters a little less aggressive and slips in for the edges, his work can be vital.
Two fivefers among 17 wickets at 15 and an economy rate a nibble above four makes that point well.
Who doesn’t want to see players like him and young Thain making their way back to form from very different starting places?
The game is big enough if we (and the men in blazers) just believe it to be so.
This article is from The 99.94 Cricket Blog Explore more on these topicsOne-Day Cup 99.94 cricket blog Cricket County Championship Lancashire Somerset Nottinghamshire Yorkshire features Share Reuse this content
