du Toit settles Riverside thriller

Durham Dynamos (0 pts) 144-8 (Wyatt 3-16) lost to Leicestershire Foxes (2 pts) 148-3 (Nixon 53*, Allenby 53, du Toit 11*) by seven wickets.

Jacques du Toit got Leicestershire Foxes over the finishing line in a nervewracking Friday night thriller against Durham Dynamos at the Riverside.

With seven runs needed from two balls, and only having faced a solitary delivery at the wicket, du Toit launched England Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood for an almighty straight six to level the scores.

Then, with the Dynamos field all up protecting the single, the batsman struck a lofted drive over cover to ensure the two points headed back down the A1 with the Foxes.

Although du Toit had the final say, it was very much a team effort on a glorious evening at Chester-le-Street.

Firstly, Alex Wyatt - who was the other change to the Foxes line-up along with du Toit for Carl Crowe and Sam Cliff from Thursday's defeat to Derbyshire - claimed 3-14 on his Twenty20 debut, including a wicket-maiden, as Dynamos made 144-8 from their 20 overs.

HD Ackerman and Jim Allenby then got the innings off to a solid start, and James Taylor also chipped in as a platform for the chase was set.

Allenby (53) and Paul Nixon, who made an unbeaten half-century on his 50th appearance for the club, then turned the game in the Foxes’ favour.

Nixon's 53 not out came from just 39 balls, and with Allenby making his runs at just more than a run a ball, the duo shared 83 for the third wicket in a little more than ten overs.

Their efforts meant ten runs were required from the final over, but Allenby fell to a super catch by a tumbling Will Smith at mid-on off Collingwood.

With the same target therefore required from five balls, the game was still very much in the balance, and the pendulum had probably swung in the hosts’ favour with the wicket.

However, Twenty20 can change in an instant, and five balls later, the Foxes were celebrating. Although nerves were jangling around the ground, the men in the middle were ice cool for the team.

Nixon and du Toit both took singles from the next two balls, and the Foxes’ keeper was fortunate to survive the fourth ball when he smashed a full toss to Gareth Breese at mid-wicket.

Fortunately, Breese, who had earlier been pulsating with the bat for the Dynamos with 37 from 15 balls, shelled the opportunity, and the Foxes were also able to scramble a single which put du Toit on strike.

The batsman then hit two beauties under the utmost pressure to clinch the triumph, much to the absolute joy and sheer relief of everyone on the County balcony, who were able to celebrate the team’s first win in the competition this season.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Dynamos struggled for the vast majority of their innings after skipper Smith won the toss and elected to bat.

They actually got off to a flying start, with the destructive left-handed duo Phil Mustard and Michael di Venuto finding the boundary five times in the opening four overs.

That put the score on 33-0, but a double strike got the team back on track. Firstly, Harry Gurney had Mustard caught behind by Nixon, and the outstanding Wyatt then struck for the first time by having di Venuto caught at deep mid-wicket by Matthew Boyce.

The tall seamer then changed ends to devastating effect. Firstly, he knocked out Collingwood's middle pole after the batsman attempted an ambitious sweep, and then the bowler had Smith caught by Nixon off the outside edge.

Inbetween, the equally accurate Jigar Naik had Blackwell caught by Wyatt at deep mid-wicket, and the Dynamos had gone from 35-0 to 55-5 in the blink of an eye.

In Wyatt’s third over, he also made Dale Benkenstein play and miss at two jaffas, and in the end the batsman had to block the over out to ensure no further damage was done, meaning the youngster had a wicket-maiden to his name.

Wyatt finished off his spell nicely to end with 3-14 from his allocation, and Naik was also brilliantly economical, conceding just twenty runs from his stint.

The Dynamos were only able to add 33 runs in eight overs between five and thirteen, and when Benkenstein was run out by a Boeta Dippenaar-Taylor combination in the 16th, the home side were 90-6 with four overs to go.

At that stage, a score of around 125 looked on the cards, but number three Kyle Coetzer (39*) was steady throughout and Breese was the exact opposite in a destructive knock.

Breese hit seven fours and a six in a whirlwind innings of 37, which spanned just 15 balls and gave the Dynamos’ innings crucial momentum at just the time the Foxes didn’t want or need it.

Although Wayne White returned to dismiss both Breese and Mitchell Claydon within the final six balls, 54 runs were added from the final four overs as the Dynamos scored 10, 16, 17 and 11 respectively.

The shift in equation meant the Foxes were then chasing more than seven an over from word go, which was never going to be easy against an experienced attack possessing plenty of international class.

Neil Killeen sent down a typically tight opening over, and Durham then followed a 2009 Twenty20 trend by opening the bowling with a spinner in slow left-armer Blackwell.

That backfired as Allenby and Ackerman (twice) punctured the off-side boundary, which had no protection during his one and only over.

However, Killeen, England test bowler Graham Onions and the impressive Mitchell Claydon were all parsimonious and the former claimed an important blow by having Ackerman caught by Benkenstein at deep mid-wicket in the fifth.

Onions’ international team-mate Collingwood was more expensive, but he also struck to have Taylor well held by Claydon at gully as the youngster attempted a reverse-sweep.

That left the score on 54-2 after nine overs, with a difficult-looking 91 required from the final eleven. It was a tall order, but Allenby and Nixon were in fine form.

The opener batted sensibly and added the odd lusty blow, while Nixon was at his quirky best, and his knock gave the innings an injection of momentum at the crucial time alongside Allenby's stability.

The duo gradually upped the rate, ensuring totals of between eight and thirteen were added between overs 10 and 16.

In that time, Allenby struck Onions (0-23 off four) for a big six over mid-wicket, and Nixon twice pulled out a switch-hit to belt Breese over the vacant position at conventional cover.

Killeen (1-23 off four) returned to good effect though, restricting the batsmen to six runs from the 17th to leave 29 runs required from three overs.

When Claydon (0-21 off four) went for just seven in the next, it left a similar equation to Monday’s match at Yorkshire.

On that occasion, Carnegie needed 22 from two, and that was exactly what the Foxes needed in this game.

Killeen’s first five balls went for just eight runs, with Allenby bringing up his half-century from 53 balls with four fours and a six in the process.

The final ball was massive in deciding which way the balance was tipped for the final over, and Nixon obliged for County with a stroke right out of the top drawer.

He smashed a great shot through the eye of the needle between the deep mid-wicket fielder and the man out at long-on, which left ten needed off the last.

That strike bought up a quite brilliant fifty from just 37 balls, and the keeper found the boundary six times during that period.

When Allenby fell from the first, Nixon and du Toit had plenty of work to do.

There were still twists and turns - as there always is in this form of the game - but du Toit's blow off the penultimate ball knocked the stuffing out of the Dynamos, and overall a perfect day of weather ended with the perfect result for the Foxes.

The team’s next challenge is the televised Twenty20 game against current group leaders Lancashire Lightning at Grace Road on Sunday (2.40pm start).