Durham Jets continued their inexorable march to a home Vitality Blast quarter final with a win at the County Ground.
After a half-hour rain delay Alex Wakely won the toss and put the visitors in to bat, a decision which looked reasonable as the high-flying visitors were kept under relative control en route to 174-7.
Although the visitors shared their runs pretty equally between the nine batsmen who headed to the wicket none of them were able to break away to put together the kind of fireworks seen in Northampton during the 2018 campaign.
Captain and opener Tom Latham top scored with 33 off 23 balls, but the home supporters who had shrugged off the afternoon rain to enjoy a clear evening under the lights headed into the interval relatively happy with way their team had performed in the field.
It was certainly a creditable outing that had plenty of energy and saw all five bowlers used claim at least one wicket.
Against a team as in form as the Jets the Steelbacks needed to replicate their midweek batting form from Derby. Unfortunately this was not forthcoming as Ricardo Vasconcelos was caught at the end of the first over, shortly followed back to the dugout by Josh Cobb at the end of the third.
This had the Steelbacks 20-2 and reeling, and while they did steady the ship somewhat progress remained slow on the scoreboard with wickets falling too regularly for any momentum to build.
Ben Duckett eventually went for 40 in the 13th over, and as the required run rate began to build Seekkuge Prasanna brought some energy with a 38 off 18 balls which included three big sixes. Ben Curran also sent a ball over the scoreboard, but the back of the innings was finally broken as both he, Prasanna and Rory Kleinveldt were all caught in the deep in the space of three balls.
To their credit Brett Hutton and Ben Sanderson kept on hitting until the final over, and there was a flicker of hope when 18 runs were required with five balls to go. But Hutton was caught, the hope was gone and Durham headed back up the M1 with their third win in four days and on the brink of a home quarter final.