DURHAM suffered their first defeat of the campaign in the Royal London One-Day Cup as Ross Whiteley and Ben Cox guided Worcestershire Rapids to a four wicket success under the Duckworth-Lewis Method at Blackfinch New Road.

The visitors had won their opening two games against Northamptonshire Steelbacks and Leicestershire Foxes – a contrast to their two setbacks in the Specsavers County Championship.

But Cox and Whiteley tipped a see-saw contest in favour of the Rapids with a half century stand for the sixth wicket before victory was completed with 10 balls to spare.

It enabled Worcestershire to bounce back from the weekend defeat to the Foxes and move level on points with Durham.

Alex Lees, who top-scored for Durham with a half century, said: “With rain around and being on the wrong end of the toss, it was quite difficult for me to pace the innings with us losing regular wickets.

“As soon as you lose wickets and there is rain around, it is obviously quite difficult to be on the right side of Duckworth-Lewis so it was disappointing.

“The elements put us on the back foot today but that is something you can’t control.

“In the end we gave ourselves a sniff at 80-5 but as a chasing team, you would have been very disappointed not to get 150.

“We are disappointed but we’ve won the first two games and we move onto Warwickshire now and hopefully we can bounce back.”

Worcestershire wicket-keeper Ben Cox, who hit an unbeaten 31, said: “It is always difficult to work out where you are in the game in rain-affected matches.

“But to get the win after the loss at Leicester, to wrestle the momentum back, especially with the way this tournament is condensed, is important.

“Riki (Wessels) and Hamish (Rutherford) got us off to a flier there but if we are honest, we need to take responsibility and make sure we don’t get into a situation where it is nervy at the end.

“We did something similar at Durham last season and messed up on the Duckworth-Lewis. It was important we shook that one off and got over the line.

“Myself and Rosco (Whiteley) put on a nice little partnership there. As long as we took it deep, we knew we were going to be in the game because we scored quick enough and it worked out in our favour.”

Durham were restricted to 114-4 in 27.2 overs before the heavens opened after being put into bat despite Alex Lees scoring his first List A half century for the County.

The Rapids were eventually set a 152 target in 24 overs via the Duckworth-Lewis Method after a delay of more than four hours.

Hamish Rutherford and Riki Wessels quickly established a position of command for the home side as the half century came up in only 4.5 overs.