Hasan Ali’s Dominance Leads Birmingham Bears to Victory Over Durham: Vitality Blast 2024
Hasan Ali’s remarkable bowling performance spearheaded Birmingham Bears to a resounding triumph over Durham at the Seat Unique Riverside in a thrilling Vitality Blast encounter.
The home team is completely overwhelmed for 101 as Birmingham wins easily to start the campaign.
Durham 101 (Jones 29, Hasan 3–20) lost to Birmingham 105 for 4 (Yates 29) by six wickets.
Birmingham Bears defeated Durham by seven wickets at the Seat Unique Riverside to win their Vitality Blast opener. This was made possible by a masterful bowling display. With outstanding efforts, Hasan Ali and Richard Gleeson spearheaded the attack, taking five wickets apiece to help limit the hosts to 101 all out.
With little hassle, the visitors led by Rob Yates and Sam Hain managed to chase down the target and won with plenty of time remaining.
After another dismal batting effort at Lancashire on Thursday, Durham found themselves facing the same issues on a different day. While Birmingham has a short turnaround as they welcome Derbyshire Falcons on Saturday, the North East side has only scored 176 runs in their first two games and will want to improve that when they play Leicestershire Foxes next Friday.
Durham got off to a flying start after being called to bat by the Bears, with Alex Lees and Graham Clark scoring 25 from the opening two overs. Dan Mousley pulled the opener for number 14, so Clark’s promising start was short lived.
After coming down the pitch to Danny Briggs, the Durham captain was stumped for 14 by Lees, who had followed his opening partner into the pavilion. Colin Ackermann was then tricked by a slower ball from Pakistani international Hasan and miscued the ball straight to backward point for one.
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To get to six, Ollie Robinson skied one from Hasan directly to the man at the square leg boundary. Ben Raine flicked a ball from George Garton into the air, and Yates, diving, made a brilliant catch to keep the wickets coming.
Michael Jones and Ashton Turner did provide some short-lived fight, but the excellent Briggs bowled the Australian for just 17. Then, Jake Lintott joined in, bowling Durham’s Australian overseas signing, Ben Dwarshuis, for two runs.
At the other end, Scottish international Jones and Matthew Potts persevered, and the batter hit Hasan with a heave to the square-leg boundary for the first six of the match.
On 29, Jones put an end to his defiance by smashing a Gleeson ball straight into Lintott’s safe hands. Nathan Sowter was eliminated for a golden duck on the following ball. After that, Durham was all out for 101 after the flawless Hasan bowled Potts for 7. This gave him figures of 3 for 20.
Yates edged a Dwarshuis delivery, but it escaped the diving Turner at slip, giving the Bears reply a near-bad start. The Bears’ first innings began when Alex Davies cranked on the style, ramping a Dwarshuis ball for six.
Yates was hitting Callum Parkinson for three fours as he chipped away at the target, but the left-arm spinner had his comeuppance and dismissed the opener for 29.
The Bears captain was backing up and short of his ground when Raine hit the stumps, and Davies was then run out for 13.
Once again, Raine was there in the heart of things, getting Mousley to go LBW for 8 and giving the Bears a little scare. Potts removed Jacob Bethell for eighteen, but Hain, who finished undefeated on twenty-seven, anchored the chase and saw his side home with ease.
