CHANDERPAUL GUIDES DYNAMOS HOME by Marcus Hook
Surrey Brown Caps 248-6 (40 Overs) v Durham Dynamos 249-3 (36 Overs). Durham Dynamos win by 7 wickets.

Surrey should not take it to heart that Shivnarine Chanderpaul was determined not to give his wicket away at Guildford yesterday. The former West Indies captain struck an unbeaten 80 off 68 balls, including three sixes and six fours, as his new county coasted home with four overs to spare. In the recent four-match Test series against England, he averaged a supreme 148.66. But what will concern Surrey is if Chanderpaul's sublime form continues. The Brown Caps, who are deep in trouble in the County Championship, face Durham at the Riverside in two weeks time when the injured Steve Harmison is also expected to return to the fold.

In all probability the Friends Provident Trophy finalists were not the opponents against whom the Brown Caps would have preferred to open the new Pro40 League campaign. Even without Harmison, the visitors' attack looked, on paper, to be the more capable of checking the flow of runs on Woodbridge Road's smaller than average expanse. It was no real surprise, therefore, when Dale Benkenstein invited the hosts to bat.

In the final analysis only the returning Jimmy Ormond and Harbhajan Singh bowled better than their counterparts. By the seventh over Surrey were 25-2, having lost James Benning and Stewart Walters. With Rikki Clarke (flu) and Mark Ramprakash (back) both missing, Scott Newman took the opportunity to break into the Brown Caps' one-day line-up with an impressive 84 in 85 deliveries, which included two sixes and eleven fours.

The 27-year-old left-hander brought up his side's fifty in the tenth over with his first maximum, when he deposited Liam Plunkett into Woodbridge Road. Two overs later Newman went to his own half-century, in 44 balls, by lifting Graham Onions over long leg for six.

Newman lost his skipper, Mark Butcher, in the fourteenth over, but then shared in a third wicket partnership of 99 in 15 overs with Alistair Brown. Brown got off the mark first ball with a cover driven four and posted his fifty in 39 deliveries. However, the turning point came when Brown and then Newman fell to successive balls from Plunkett - Brown cutting to backward point and Newman beaten for pace.

Jon Batty and Chris Schofield put on 73 in eleven overs for Surrey's sixth wicket. Batty hit two sixes as the last over went for 18, but the climax to the innings was long overdue, especially seeing as the hosts had wickets to spare.

Needing 249 to win, Durham soon overcame the early loss of Michael Di Venuto, who edged the third ball of the innings to Batty. Kyle Coetzer then shared in two stands of note - 99 in thirteen overs for the second wicket with Phil Mustard and 120 in eighteen overs with Chanderpaul.

The 23-year-old Scot struck a one-day career best 76 off 84 balls, including ten fours, but was something of a bystander when Mustard was in full flow. The Durham wicketkeeper moved from 25 to 63 in nineteen deliveries as he took 16 runs off Matt Nicholson's third over and a further fifteen off the Australian's fifth. In the fourteenth over, however, Mustard played across the line and skied a catch to Batty off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh.

Coetzer went to his half-century in the 21st over and in the next, Schofield's second, Chanderpaul started and finished the over with sixes. Two overs later, the West Indian's fifty arrived in 39 deliveries and not long after he hoisted Schofield for another six, this time over square leg, Durham's 200 arrived. When Coetzer eventually fell to a catch at long-on off the bowling of Brown, the Dynamos needed just 28 more runs for victory. By that time, however, the outcome had become a formality.

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