Killeen rocks Lancashire as Durham ease to win at Liverpool

A stunning opening spell by Neil Killeen secured a famous Benson & Hedges Cup victory for Durham against mighty Lancashire at Liverpool.

Lancashire were chasing a relatively modest target of 194 but Killeen fired out Mike Atherton, John Crawley, Joe Scuderi and Andy Flintoff to claim four for 18 in eight overs, and his first Gold Award.

Atherton, Crawley and Scuderi were all caught by Martin Love at first slip, and with wicket-keeper Andy Pratt producing superb one-handed efforts to send back Flintoff and Neil Fairbrother, Lancashire found themselves 58 for five.

They never recovered, with Danny Law adding the wicket of Graham Lloyd, caught at cover by Jon Lewis as he aimed for a big hit over mid-wicket, to Fairbrother's, and Lancashire were all out for 139 in the 41st over to leave Durham celebrating a 54-run win.

Earlier Jimmy Daley had hit a B&H-best 70 from 119 balls as the base for Durham's total, although Lancashire would have been happy to restrict them to 193.

John Wood, who was given a late call-up for his Lancashire debut against his former club when Peter Martin dislocated his finger in fielding practice, took two for 39 but the pick of the bowlers was Muttiah Muralitharan who conceded eight runs from his first over but only 11 from the remaining nine, and also took the key wicket of Love to end with one for 19.