Robinson blasts century to earn opening victory

A brilliant century from Ollie Robinson and an excellent all-round effort from Will Rhodes led Durham to a 51-run victory over Sussex in the Metro Bank One Day Cup.

- by THOMAS RIDLEY on behalf of the ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay

Robinson's counterattacking century, which was his first List A ton for Durham, supported by a gutsy innings from Rhodes fired Durham to a total of 310 for seven from their 50 overs, with Archie Lenham the pick of the Sussex bowlers.

Sussex's chase of 311 got off to a poor start as they found themselves 86 for four at one point, but middle order runs from Danny Lamb dragged his side back in the game.

However, Rhodes secured Durham the opening day victory with his first List A five-wicket haul.

Robinson said: "The pitch suited our attack pretty well, it was good to get a score on the board and the required rate was about It's nice to have the change of format, something to get your teeth into and there's not as much pressure as a T20 batting in this format, you can let there be a few dots."

Sussex won the toss at a sunny Gosforth and elected to bowl first and they got off to a great start as Alex Lees edged a Fynn Hudson-Prentice deliv ery behind to Charlie Tear in the open ing over.

Rhodes and Emilio Gay settled Durham down and reached 50 in the pow erplay as the former produced a crunching straight drive for four.

Rhodes reached his half-century from 43 balls on his List A debut for Durham, while Gay started to show some aggression as he took the aerial route to find the cover boundary.