Hall's all-round effort puts victory in sight

Kent 90-2, Durham 189

The Kent opener Robert Key was nursing his badly bruised forearm, suffered in the County Championship match against Surrey on Saturday, and was therefore unable to play any part in the game yesterday.

The Kent opener Robert Key was nursing his badly bruised forearm, suffered in the County Championship match against Surrey on Saturday, and was therefore unable to play any part in the game yesterday.

But Kent expect Key to be fit for Wednesday's Championship match against Gloucestershire at Maidstone. Still his loss, given the rich vein of form that he has been in, was Durham's gain.

The National League Second Division leaders arrived for their first one-day fixture on this ground unbeaten and with an impressive net run rate. However, that took a bit of a dent with Kent's miserly attack.

It took Nicky Peng almost an hour and a half and 75 balls to reach his second successive half-century in this competition, and it was not until Phil Mustard arrived at the crease that there was anything for the Durham fans to cheer.

Mustard added some serious hurry-up to Durham's progress. There were just a dozen scoring strokes in the 25 balls he faced - four of them cleared the boundary, the rest of his 32 runs were taken as singles. Peng had already fallen by the time Mustard emerged, leg before wicket to Andrew Hall, making his one-day debut for Kent.

Apart from Mustard there was little on offer from the visitors and had it not been for him the innings was in danger of stuttering to a standstill. Durham had no answer to the magnificent bowling of Hall, whose 8.5 overs realised three wickets at a cost of just 17 runs.

When Kent began their reply it also became apparent Durham had no answer to Hall the batsman. The skies had taken on a menacing hue and rain was expected, so, despite the loss of Michael Carberry and Martin van Jaarsveld early on, Hall hit the Durham attack all over the ground, making a great impression with his new county.

He got them ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis total - calculated when the weather intervenes and cuts a match short once the side batting second has reached 10 overs.

He found an able partner in Matthew Walker, the pair taking their third-wicket stand past 50 in very little time and increasing the odds of a home victory with Hall reaching an excellent half-century off just 46 balls.