Prithvi Shaw followed up his brilliant innings of 244 with another outstanding knock of 125* to lead Northamptonshire Steelbacks to a dominant six-wicket win over Durham in their Metro Bank One-Day Cup clash at Seat Unique Riverside.
Shaw unleashed an onslaught of hitting on the Durham bowlers in the Steelbacks’ chase of 199, scoring fifteen 4s and seven 6s in just 76 deliveries.
Earlier in the day, Luke Procter tormented Durham with the ball taking a List A career-best of 4/34, tearing through the middle order but a late cameo from Liam Trevaskis propelled the hosts towards the 200-run mark, but their eventual total always appeared short after failing to bat out their fifty overs.
After Durham won the toss, the Steelbacks bowlers prevented the openers from making a fast start. Graham Clark scored two early boundaries, but his attempt to find a third resulted in an edge to Shaw at first slip. At the end of the powerplay, the hosts had mustered only 36 runs, highlighting the slowness of a used wicket and accurate bowling from the Northamptonshire attack.
David Bedingham struggled with his timing but appeared to find his range from Procter’s second over, scoring two boundaries. However, the South African then missed a swipe across the line to fall for 14 before Michael Jones handed Procter his second strike picking out Justin Broad on the leg-side boundary.
The Steelbacks continued their stranglehold of the innings when James Sales found Lees’ inside edge to bowl the Durham skipper for 34. Jonathan Bushnell offered resistance with a solid knock of 32, but he and Scott Borthwick were undone by spin as Simon Kerrigan and Rob Keogh made further inroads into the Durham line-up.
Trevaskis top scored for Durham with 37 to push the hosts towards the 200-run mark, but Procter returned to bowl the left-hander before Keogh removed George Drissell to end the innings with 40 balls remaining.
Prithvi made a lightning start to the Steelbacks’ chase, dispatching three boundaries from the first over. The hosts had a chance to remove the former India international for 21, but Drissell put down a tough diving catch in the covers off Pretorius’ bowling.
Prithvi made the most of his second chance, ushering the visitors to fifty without loss in the eighth over.
Drissell hit back for Durham with two wickets in his second over, removing Emilio Gay and Sam Whiteman.
Shaw, however, responded with back-to-back sixes against Trevaskis to bring up his fifty in 41 balls. The opener and Keogh stabilised proceedings and upped the ante to blast the Durham attack to all parts of the ground.
Prithvi produced a brilliant display of hitting off Borthwick’s first over, scoring 24 with five-straight boundaries. Keogh brought up the century stand from 63 balls but fell short of his fifty as Drissell claimed his third wicket, ending with his best List A figures.
Shaw finished the game at a canter smashing Drissell for three consecutive boundaries, sealing the victory with 24.2 overs to spare and giving the Steelbacks their third victory in a row.