orkshire 167 for 3 (Wharton 68*, Whiteman 52*, Bennison 36) beat Durham 165 (Rhodes 31, Cliff 4-38) by seven wickets
The potent combination of excellent bowling and poor batting from Durham meant Yorkshire won an anti-climatic Metro Bank One-Day Cup clash between two high-flyers by seven wickets at York.
Yorkshire bowled Durham out for 165 inside 49 overs before chasing with comfort – despite falling to 5 for 2 – to ensure a fourth win in five Group B games. They are closing in on the knockout stages as a result.
Durham are still well placed with three wins from four, but this wasn’t their best day as seam-bowling Bens Cliff and Coad were outstanding for Yorkshire with 4 for 38 and 1 for 19 respectively.
Will Rhodes top-scored with 31 for Durham before unbeaten fourth-wicket partners James Wharton and Sam Whiteman shared 97 and contributed 68 and 52 respectively. Yorkshire won with nine overs to spare.
This was a good toss to lose for Yorkshire, who took advantage of some early assistance to reduce their visitors to 15 for 3 and later 42 for 4 when Ben Stokes was caught on the reverse-sweep for 12 off the Indian left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav.
Kuldeep finished with two wickets alongside fellow spinner Dom Bess on a used Clifton Park pitch.
Earlier, Alex Lees feathered George Hill behind driving, Emilio Gay lost his middle stump to Coad following an ugly swipe and Graham Clark miscued Cliff to mid-on as Durham lost three early wickets.
Coad bowled five maidens in a fabulous seven-over new-ball spell, which was then followed by Kuldeep and home captain Bess striking as the score became 121 for 7 in the 37th over.
In many ways, despite Cliff taking four wickets in 9.1 overs, Coad was the best bowler on show in his nine in front of a 4,859 crowd.
Bess had Rhodes caught and bowled for 31 before Kuldeep trapped Colin Ackermann lbw for 26.
The dismissal of England Test opener Gay – in at No. 3 – was chief amongst a number of ill-judged Durham shots in front of watching men’s national selector Marcus North, their former director of cricket.
While Rhodes and Ollie Robinson (19) shared 33 for the fifth wicket from 42 for 4, last pair Luke Robinson with 17 not out and Shafiqullah Ghafari shared the next best partnership of 29.
Stokes took the new ball and removed Will Luxton caught behind in the second over of Yorkshire’s chase following successive centuries.
Robinson then trapped Adam Lyth lbw in the next to raise Durham hopes before, with sunshine having now replaced the morning cloud, Wharton and Will Bennison advanced Yorkshire’s cause by sharing 65.
England Under-19 Bennison was dropped early but played nicely for 36 before playing on against Ghafari’s legspin at 70 for 3.
Stokes was driven and worked for boundaries by Wharton, who found another partner in the more experienced and fluent West Australian Whiteman.
Wharton reached his fifty off 97 balls, and Whiteman his off 52, by which stage Yorkshire were all but home and hosed.