Broken by time with England, Jennings can be all-round star for county
KEATON Jennings was Durham’s hero with the ball rather than the bat on his return to county cricket.
Dropped by England the previous day, the 25-year-old produced an inspirational spell to drag Durham at last into positive points for their Twenty20 campaign.
Jennings made his first Twenty20 appearance since his record-breaking 88 in the 2016 final and while Tom Latham, on only his second outing in the format for Durham, stole the show with the bat, Jennings’ 2-21 was crucial in Durham’s 13-run victory.
Worcestershire were well set at 78-1 halfway through their chase of 166 and ahead of the Duckworth Lewis rate.
But Jennings’ medium pace removed top-scorer Ben Cox for 34 and with Ryan Pringle having Mitchell Santner caught on the boundary soon after for 28, Worcestershire’s chase subsided in a collapse of 4-22.
Jennings also claimed the important wicket of Daryl Mitchell, bowled off his pads.
Durham had started well with the new ball, Usman Arshad conceding just seven runs in his two powerplay overs, but Santner and Cox looked to have grabbed the initiative until the latter went for a big shot off Jennings and served up a catch Tom Latham took above his head on the boundary.
Some loose stuff in the final overs gave Worcestershire a glimmer of hope, Barry McCarthy bowling a no-ball and seeing the free-hit go for six as over 18 went for 16 runs, and James Weighell conceding 14 in the 19th.
But by then they had left themselves too much to do. It left the Pears needing 21 from the last six deliveries – do-able but difficult in modern T20 – and Arshad kept his cool, conceding only ones and twos to bring his side only their third win of 2017.
The Riversiders had started the summer on minus four points – two wins – as a result of the financial trouble they ran into in 2016.
If Jennings was the star with the ball his opening partner Latham was class personified with the bat.
Latham, who marked his County Championship debut with a century four days earlier, smashed a brilliant 62 off 40 balls.
He lost Jennings in the second over for just four, but the in-form New Zealander was not going to let anything throw him off his stride.
Jennings, dropped by England the day before after a miserable Test series against South Africa faced ten of the first 12 balls; and his only scoring shot was a cut to the boundary.
Paul Collingwood was also out for four, squared up by a ball he came down the pitch to hit and stumped by Ben Cox.
Latham missed out on leading the onslaught in the final five overs, well caught by a diving Mitchell at backward point, but Michael Richardson took over, making made a busy 49 not out from 30 balls.