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.
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"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)
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