HAVING already qualified for the Friends Provident Trophy quarter-finals as group leaders, Gloucestershire lost their final group match at Durham yesterday.

Gloucestershire had underlined their one-day prowess by recovering from a poor start to make 254 for eight.

But after Kyle Coetzer got the reply off to a flier with 36 off 35 balls, Phil Mustard polished his Twenty20 tricks in an innings of 57 and Ian Blackwell provided the muscle by making 64.

Both were severe on young left-arm spinner Vikram Banerjee. Mustard reverse swept him for three perfectly timed fours, then Blackwell chipped him over mid-on and mid-off before driving him for a straight six.

Mustard drove a catch to extra cover in the 29th over, but with only 100 required at that stage Dale Benkenstein had time to settle in before helping to secure victory with 11 balls to spare.

There was a slight hiccup when Blackwell pulled Banerjee to deep mid-wicket to bring in Ben Stokes with 42 needed off 11 overs.

When the youngster had faced seven balls without scoring he went down the pitch to Banerjee and was stumped. But with Gareth Breese for company there was never any danger of Benkenstein not completing the task, even though he perished for 44 when the scores were level.

Having started Riverside’s previous FPT games this season at noon, the 10.45 start made a difference as batting proved extremely tricky in the first hour.

Put in by Will Smith, Gloucestershire slumped to 72-5 before New Zealander James Franklin and wicket-keeper Steve Adshead put on 175.

They shattered the previous record sixth-wicket stand against Durham in the premier cup, which was 126 by Chris Taylor and Ant Botha at Derby in 2006.

Franklin made 85 and Adshead a one-day best of 87 before both holed out in the 49th over, during which Neil Killeen also had Jon Lewis caught to finish with five for 48.

Earlier, Killeen was on a hat-trick after removing Hamish Marshall with the last ball of his second over and Alex Gidman with the first ball of his third.

The specialist one-day seamer showed he could move the ball either way as Marshall got an inside edge into his stumps and Gidman pushed forward and edged to Mustard.

When Mitch Claydon had Craig Spearman lbw Gloucestershire were 13-3, and while Taylor emerged to play fluently, opener Will Porterfield continued to struggle.

He had faced 42 balls for 12 when he lifted a catch to mid-on off Will Gidman – brother of Gloucestershire captain Alex - whose accuracy saw him prove more economical than Liam Plunkett.

It was when shaping to run Plunkett to third man, however, that Taylor played on for an impressive 36.

The position held no fears for Adshead, who came into the match averaging 50.5 in the competition this season.

He showed what a resourceful batsman he is as he initially outpaced Franklin without going for any big shots.

Their sensible rebuilding had seen them put on 82 in 18 overs when Durham called up 17-year-old Stokes but his one over cost 14 runs, as did the next, bowled by Breese.

This sparked the onslaught which brought 94 off nine overs before the late stumble, with Franklin proving a very clean striker as he built on the 74-ball 50 he completed with a huge straight six off Breese.

Adshead shaped to pull Stokes’ sixth ball and top-edged it over the wicket-keeper for the four which took him to 50 off 64 balls.

He was then dropped twice as he passed his previous one-day best of 77 then swept Killeen for six before 13 came off Blackwell’s final over. It was just as well that Killeen’s treble strike stemmed the flow as 15 more runs might have been crucial.