Durham shrugged off a week of woe by easing to a four-wicket win with 14 balls to spare against Warwickshire in the Royal London Cup tie at South Northumberland CC in the Newcastle suburb of Gosforth.
A day after taking over the one-day captaincy from the departing Mark Stoneman, Paul Collingwood took his team within sight of victory by thrashing 53 off 33 balls.
It ended a run of four one-day defeats, culminating in Sunday’s 170-run hammering at Northampton prior to the announcement that Stoneman had signed for Surrey and Phil Mustard had gone to Gloucestershire on loan.
Put in on an excellent pitch, the visitors were on course for 300-plus while century-maker Sam Hain was sharing a third wicket stand of 143 with Tim Ambrose.
But good bowling at the end of the innings by Usman Arshad, with three for 50, held them in check and they fell short on 292 for seven.
Hain continued his fine one-day form with a cultured 107 off 115 balls and Ambrose hit two sixes in making 86 off 89 balls before Laurie Evans cleared the rope three times in a quickfire 30.
Despite those sixes, Warwickshire would have hoped for more late momentum had Hain not played on in the 42nd when trying to run Keaton Jennings to third man. Ambrose then miscued a drive off Arshad to extra cover as the 46th over yielded only two runs.
Stuart Poynter, making his debut in competitive cricket in place of Mustard, took the catches which brought the only two wickets to fall in the first 41 overs, Will Porterfield falling to Chris Rushworth in the third.
Ian Bell unfurled some elegant cover drives as he contributed 31 to a stand of 72 with Hain before his first attempt at a big hit brought his downfall when he edged the first ball of Scott Borthwick’s second over.
Stoneman laid the platform for Durham’s chase with a solid 56 then Borthwick built the momentum with two sixes in his 66 off 67 balls.
Victory looked a formality when Collingwod pulled Chris Wright for two sixes and drove him for two fours in the 40th over to reduce the target to 61 off ten.
The captain went for one big hit too many in the 44th, slicing a Rikki Clarke slower ball to short third man. But Michael Richardson was equal to the task of gathering the remaining 40 runs with an unbeaten 32.
