THEY might have missed out on a second successive Friends Provident Trophy final at Lord's, but Geoff Cook last night insisted Durham were still on track for more one-day glory this season.

Kent cruised to an 83-run victory in yesterday's semifinal at Riverside, with centuries from both Martin van Jaarsveld and Joe Denly setting Durham a victory target that always appeared out of reach.

But with Monday's Twenty20 Cup quarter-final with Yorkshire still offering an alternative route to limitedovers glory, Cook claimed Durham's players would overcome yesterday's disappointment in doublequick time.

"It's always disappointing to lose a semi-final," said the Durham head coach. "But we're very fortunate that we have another big day just around the corner and that's going to be another huge day for the club.

"It's a great chance for the players to put themselves forward and get this out of their system.

"They've still got plenty to play for this season.

"We're only two games away from another final, and the players in that dressing room are more than capable of getting us there.

"We're coming off the back of a defeat, but there are still some pretty good players in our team and they're more than capable of bouncing straight back against Yorkshire."

Albie Morkel remains one of Durham's limited- overs stars, but the South Africa allrounder left Riverside yesterday cursing his "worst day in cricket".

M o r k e l ' s seven overs with the ball cost 75 runs - his final 12 deliveries alone went for 36 - and he made just nine with the bat before holing out to R y a n McLaren at deep mid off.

The 27-year-old is likely to be named in the South African one-day side that will face England later this summer, but before he leaves Durham to resume his international duties, he is determined to atone for yesterday's mistakes.

"Everybody's disappointed, but Albie Morkel told me straight after the game that he'd just had his worst day in cricket," said Cook.

"Going for ten runs an over and getting caught at deep mid off isn't everybody's idea of a perfect day, but that's what can happen. He's one of the top all-rounders in the world, but things didn't go for him on the day.

"He's desperate to bounce back, though, and I'm sure he'll turn in some great performances for Durham in the future, hopefully starting against Yorkshire on Monday night."

Morkel's failings with the ball enabled Kent to post an imposing total of 301-4, and left Durham staring down the barrel of a run chase that surpassed anything they had achieved in their one-day history.

They briefly threatened to make it when Dale Benkenstein and Will Smith shared a fourth-wicket stand of 108 but, ultimately, they were unable to recover from a shocking start that saw them lose both openers for just two runs.

There was a huge element of misfortune about Michael Di Venuto's dismissal - umpire Richard Kettlewell adjudged the opener to have been trapped lbw despite a significant inside edge that took the ball into the pads - but Cook refused to blame Durham's defeat on misfortune.

"That's the way cricket goes sometimes," he said.

"It was disappointing to lose Michael so early, and I thought Kent had an element of luck at the start of their innings when they played and missed a lot and spooned a few over the infield.

"But good luck to them.

They took an aggressive approach and profited from that. They made sure they had plenty of wickets in hand, so they were able to go for their big shots at the end."

Those big shots included three huge sixes from van Jaarsveld, now the leading run-scorer in this year's Friends Provident Trophy by a distance, and Cook admitted that the South African's 100-run partnership with Denly was the decisive moment.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game between two evenly-matched teams, and they came at us right from the start," he added.

"There were two excellent innings from van Jaarsveld and Denly, and the two batsmen just seemed to keep going no matter what we were throwing at them.

"It was an awkward decision to put them in, but we were hoping that the reputation of our wicket might have put a few doubts in their mind.

"They came at us straight away though, and the quality of their batting was decisive."

SCOREBOARD

Durham v Kent At Riverside

Kent beat Durham by 83 runs

Kent

J L Denly b S J Harmison . . . . . 102

(beaten for pace by straight one, 125b, 15 fours)

R W Key c Mustard b SJ H'mison 40

(edged ball that moved away slightly, 49b, 8 fours)

M van Jaarsveld not out . . . . . . . 22

(93b, 9 fours, 3 sixes)

Azhar Mahmood b SJ Harmison 14

(too late on attempted heave, 11b, 2 fours)

J M Kemp b S J Harmison . . . . . . 5

(outfoxed by slower ball, 13b)

D I Stevens not out . . . . . . . . . . . 12

(9b, 1 four)

Extras (lb5 w1 pens 0)6 Total 4 wkts Innings Complete

(50 overs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Fall: 1-96 2-196 3-228 4-248

Did Not Bat: G O Jones, R McLaren, Yasir Arafat, J C Tredwell, R H Joseph.

Pollock 10-0-51-0. Killeen 7-0-42-0.

Plunkett 10-2-36-0. S J Harmison 10-0- 47-4. J A Morkel 7-0-75-0. Breese 5-0- 31-0. Collingwood 1-0-14-0.

Durham

M J Di Venuto lbw b A Mahmood . 2

(given out despite inside edge, 6b)

P Mustard c G Jones b Y Arafat . 0

(thin edge to wicketkeeper, 3b)

W R Smith lbw b Stevens . . . . . . 56

(played around straight one, 78b, 3 fours)

P D Collingwood lbw b McLaren 36

(played back to in-swinger, 36b, 6 fours)

D M Benkenstein not out . . . . . . 80

(89b, 7 fours)

J A Morkel c McLaren b Tredwell 9

(holed out to long off, 11b, 1 four)

S M Pollock c Kemp b Y Arafat . 18

(chipped catch to deep square-leg, 20b, 2 fours)

G R Breese st G Jones b Tredwell 1

(trapped with back foot on crease, 8b)

L E Plunkett run out . . . . . . . . . . . 1

(beaten by athletic flick from the wicketkeeper, 1b)

S J Harmison b Tredwell . . . . . . . 1

(missed attempted flick to leg, 3b)

N Killeen run out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0

(failed to make his ground after opting not to run, 5b)

Extras (lb7 w5 nb2 pens 0) . 14

Total (43.1 overs) . . . . . . . . 218

Fall: 1-2 2-2 3-56 4-165 5-175 6-208 7- 214 8-216 9-217

Azhar Mahmood 6-1-17-1. Yasir Arafat 7-0-47-2. McLaren 6.1-0-32-1. Joseph 4-0-35-0. Tredwell 10-1-37-3. Stevens 10-3-43-1.

9:41am Saturday 5th July 2008

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