Durham 147 for 7 (Robinson 45, Clark 40) beat Birmingham Bears 143 (Hain 45, Neesham 3-34) by three wickets.

Durham launched their Vitality Blast campaign with an impressive three-wicket victory over The Bears at Edgbaston.

The Bears were 143 all out from exactly 20 overs after only Sam Hain (45 from 28 balls) came close to salvaging the innings from the wretched foundation of four for three. Durham bowled superbly as a unit with Jimmy Neesham taking three wickets and Callum Parkinson, Nathan Sowter and Ben Raine two apiece.

Ollie Robinson (45, 36) and Graham Clark (40, 23) then lifted Durham to 147 for seven with 17 balls to spare to condemn The Bears to back-to-back defeats to start their campaign.

Durham chose to bowl and started brilliantly as they reduced the Bears to four for three after 17 balls. Parkinson's first over yielded just one run but two wickets as Alex Davies pulled backwards square leg and Tom Latham holed out to deep mid-wicket.

Zak Foulkes added the wicket of Moeen Ali, caught at short fine leg.

Hain and Ed Barnard (23, 18) cranked the innings into motion, but Durham's attack, skilfully juggled by skipper Alex Lees, prevented the big individual contribution that was required.

Raine was brought on and yorked Barnard with his fourth ball. Sowter was brought back on and rattled Kai Smith's off-stump through a defeated cut. Hain lifted Neesham to extra cover. Sowter removed George Garton, lbw reverse-sweeping.

The lower order fiddled a few scrappy runs, but the innings ended when Danny Briggs lifted the final ball from Neesham to long-on in near silence.

It was excellent work by Durham, not least New Zealand seamer Foulkes, whose 4-0-18-1 gave him a happier memory of Edgbaston than his most recent experience there, a golden duck for the Bears in last season's miserable Blast quarter-final defeat to Gloucestershire.

The Bears badly needed early wickets, a nd Barnard supplied two, forcing Lees to play on and having Colin Ackermann caught at cover. While Barnard's first two overs cost just 12, however, the two from the other end, from Adam Sylvester and Moeen, leaked 32 to give Durham a rapid start.

They reached 50 in the fifth over.

Clark's clean hitting concluded when he clipped Jake Lintott to mid-wicket. Raine and Neesham were bowled by Moeen going for big hits that were not needed, but Robinson and former Warwickshire captain Will Rhodes sensibly took their side to the brink of victory with a stand of 24 in 17 balls.

Robinson holed out to Briggs with six still needed, but Rhodes saw his team to victory and hit the winning boundary, somewhat ironically against the club which consistently omitted him from their T20 side.