Sussex maintained their push to reach the knockout stage of the Royal London Cup with a four-wicket win over Durham at the Seat Unique Riverside.
Cheteshwar Pujara played another captain’s innings to steer Sussex home in a nervy chase of 229.
The visitors were able to restrict Durham to 228 for eight from their 50 overs courtesy of three wickets from James Coles and two apiece from Aristides Karvelas and Bradley Currie.
Graham Clark top-scored for the hosts with 69 and George Drissell notched up a career-best 37 but defending their total was always going to be a challenge.
In a composed start, Ali Orr provided a solid platform with a knock of 60. But regular wickets for the home side made life interesting as Sussex wobbled during the latter stages of the chase.
Pujara remained patient, though, with an unbeaten 49 before Coles knocked off the winning runs with a drive down the ground.
Durham won the toss and chose to bat first but the opening partnership lasted into only the fourth over as Nic Maddinson edged to second slip for only a single.
Currie then claimed his second wicket of his first spell with a beauty to Scott Borthwick, removing the Durham skipper’s off-stump to reduce the hosts to 24 for two.
Sean Dickson joined Clark in the middle and the pair fended off the new ball to move the home side past fifty through the first powerplay.
Karvelas had an unsuccessful opening burst but a change of ends brought the wicket of Dickson, who chopped on to his own stumps.
Clark was the only Durham batsman to find his form, scoring a flurry of early boundaries before settling into his knock and reaching his second fifty of the season.
The opener looked well set to kick on but played across the line to the left-arm spin of Coles and was out for 69.
Coles handed Sussex complete control of the innings by bowling Tomas Mackintosh, leaving the hosts in a desperate scramble to post a competitive total.
Useful knocks from Paul Coughlin and Stanley McAlindon provided impetus before Drissell notched a career-best 37 to steer Durham to 228 from their 50 overs.
Sussex began their chase in confident fashion as Orr and Tom Alsop eased their way into rhythm. Orr was given a chance off Chris Rushworth when Coughlin put down a skier at mid-off on 22 – and he capitalised to post a half-century.
The Sussex openers shared a stand of 94 before Trevaskis made the breakthrough as Alsop was caught behind miscuing a reverse sweep.
Orr worked his way to 60 but the break in play for drinks halted his momentum and from the first ball from the restart he was pinned lbw by Drissell.
Trevaskis opened the door for the hosts to apply pressure as he removed Tom Clark for 19, with Sussex still requiring 98 runs for victory. Harrison Ward’s frustration got the better of him, playing a loose drive straight to Drissell, while Delray Rawlins was dismissed for 13 by McAlindon.
Pujara held the key for Sussex in the closing overs as Durham dried up the runs amid tight bowling from Rushworth, McAlindon and Ollie Gibson.
The visitors were forced to work the total off in singles as boundaries were at a premium, taking the game into a final over when five were required.
But then Coles took the drama out of the equation by smashing a boundary straight down the ground to secure the win.
…
Sussex all-rounder James Coles said: “It is one of those games even when you’re cruising along if you lose a couple of wickets it can get quite close.
“It was nice to get over the line and get another win for the boys. It was getting a little but twitchy but you always had faith when you only need 4.5 runs per over – and it was good to get there with a boundary in the last over.
“It was great to have Cheteshwar Pujara there because he was talking me through the innings. He was always there to keep me calm. I was quite pumped in between overs and Cheteshwar was saying if I get on strike to target the boundary.
“It’s all coming together nicely for us and it was nice to put in a good performance with the ball in a winning effort.”
Durham’s teenage pace bowler Stan McAlindon said: “They were 100-1 for one at one point but the boys stuck at the task and made it close. I’m so glad we were able to take it to the last over and we showed what Durham are about.
“Myself and George Drissell knew we had to add runs with the bat and we managed to take it to the end of our 50 overs – and 228 we got gave us a chance.
“We showed what we’re about because we dragged it back even after dropping a catch early on. It’s annoying that we could not get over the line in another close game but we’ll take it into the next game with experience and hopefully get the win.”
