Derbyshire v. Durham Vitality Blast game 1

Durham 203-8 (Lees 54, Robinson 48, Ackerman 36, Morley 3-35, Aitchison 2-31, Potts 2-34)

Derbyshire 197-8 (Montgomery 74*, Whiteley 45, Parkinson 3-38, Raine 2-32)

Durham won by six runs

Derbyshire gave a good account of themselves tonight, but eventually fell up short by six runs against Durham.

None of the bowlers were really collared, with the exception of Ross Whiteley, who went for 27 runs from his only over. He looked rusty and I spent a fair part of the innings wondering why Martin Andersson didn't bowl. Perhaps he has a niggle and they didn't want to risk him, but he would surely have got at least two overs, were he fit.

Jack Morley bowled very well, Nick Potts continued his recent good form and Ben Aitchison bowled as he has all season. We seemed a bowler light, but the batting looked short too. For all his fine century at Lord's, Aitchison is a good number nine but eight is too high for him, as it is for Potts.

What Durham did well was to ride on the back of good knocks from Lees, Ackerman and Robinson. The former got them off to a flyer, while the others kept them ticking over nicely through the middle overs.

In contrast, the Derbyshire batters flickered into life with fine shots, but surrendered their wickets too frequently. They stayed around the required rate for a long time, but were never quite ahead of it sufficiently to take their foot off the gas and just knock it around.

A partnership of 70 in seven overs between Whiteley and Montgomery offered hope, full of fine strokes from both players. But it needed something special, with 37 needed from the last three overs. 

Montgomery reached a splendid half century, full of improvisation as well as classical chipped strokes over the off side. He got them to within range and then made his only mistake, in trying a reverse sweep from a free hit when Matthew Potts overstepped. The Durham seamer had a poor match with the ball and in the field, but while the ball was probably there for the drive Montgomery missed with the unorthodox and then couldn't hit the required six from the final ball to make the tie.

Nonetheless, his was an outstanding innings that promised a lot. 

For Durham, Ben Raine was as canny as ever, while Callum Parkinson dismissed both Whiteley and Basra after earlier halting the charge of Nye Donald in his first over. 

There was a first sighting of Akif, who settled pretty well after only landing in the UK two days ago. His first over wasn't quite there, but afterwards I thought he did pretty well. 

At the end of it all, everyone saw a fine game of cricket. As I wrote last night, these matches change on one ball, or one over. 

Tonight the Whiteley over, together with Montgomery missing out on a free hit, was the difference between the two sides.