Raine rips through Bears to seal Durham win

Vitality T20 Blast, Edgbaston

Durham 194-9: Bedingham 63, Turner 33; Garton 3-41

Birmingham 168: Bethell 50, Davies 47; Raine 5-21

Durham beat Birmingham by 26 runs

Match scorecard

Ben Raine recorded a maiden T20 five-wicket haul to seal Durham’s second victory in as many days as they triumphed against Birmingham Bears.

The Durham seamer finished with 5-21 – four of his wickets coming in the space of eight balls – to dismiss the Bears for 168 in 18.4 overs at Edgbaston.

That left the home side well short of Durham’s total of 194-9, centred around an explosive knock of 63 from 27 balls by David Bedingham.

Birmingham skipper Alex Davies (47 from 30) gave his side hope before Jacob Bethell struck his maiden Blast half-century but it was not enough to save them from a second successive North Group defeat.

Durham chose to bat and, despite losing Graham Clark for a second-ball duck, they were soon in the ascendancy as Bedingham bludgeoned a string of boundaries against the Bears seamers.

The South African took 19 from a single George Garton over, while Aamer Jamal also came in for some punishment as an enormous six over midwicket brought up Bedingham’s half-century from 21 balls.

He pummelled Jake Lintott’s first ball for another maximum but the bowler had the final word, tempting Bedingham to punch one to short cover before off-spinner Dan Mousley’s shrewd spell of 2-23 applied the brakes in the middle overs.

Ashton Turner (33 from 24) and Ollie Robinson (25 from 18) regained some momentum for Durham and Matthew Potts, with a valuable 14 from just seven deliveries, lifted the visitors above 190.

Birmingham – who also lost a second-ball wicket, that of Rob Yates – swiftly ate into their target as Davies and Mousley (35 from 20) repeatedly peppered the boundaries in the powerplay.

Turner made an immediate impact with his off-breaks, luring Davies out of his ground for Robinson to take off the bails, but Bethell (50 from 32) stepped into the breach and took on Durham’s spinners, twice lifting Nathan Sowter over the rope.

However, Raine struck a vital blow with two wickets in as many balls and Potts repeated that feat – including the dismissal of Bethell, caught in the deep – before his fellow seamer applied the finishing touch by yorking both Lintott and Garton.