Durham secured their place in the quarter-finals of the Metro Bank One Day Cup despite losing to Worcestershire by 77-runs in a tense final group game at New Road.

After being pegged back early, Tom Taylor‘s quickfire 86 hauled the hosts up to a competitive 291 at the halfway stage, with Kasey Aldridge‘s 3 for 18 doing the bulk of the damage.

Ben McKinney‘s assault of 82 from just 70 balls set Durham out of the traps early, before a middle-order wobble blew the game wide open.

A vital lower-order stand between Aldridge and Ollie Robinson kept the visitors in the contest and proved enough to see them through at the expense of the defending champions.

Luke Robinson fired the visitors into the ascendency early at New Road by removing Brett D’Oliviera with the second ball of the day, courtesy of a sharp catch off his own bowling.

Matthew Waite offered the defending champions some temporary stability with a punchy 25-ball 39, but his cameo was ended by a Ben Stokes ball that caught his edge.

Callum Parkinson grabbed the third Durham wicket of the day, accounting for Isaac Mohammad, and problems mounted for the hosts when a mix up saw Kashif Ali run out with Worcestershire struggling at 89 for 4.

A typically fluent start by Jake Libby saw him ease to 46 in a promising fifth-wicket stand, but leg-spinner Zafar Ghafari snagged both Libby and Henry Cullen in quick succession.

Robinson returned to snare Beyers Swanepoel in the 40th over, but a remarkable stand of 90 between Tom Taylor and Ben Allison threw the Rapids a lifeline.

The pair combined for an enterprising stand of 90, with Taylor dominating the scoring in a swashbuckling knock of 86, striking 11 boundaries as he shifted the momentum of the innings late on.

Allison chipped in, but when he and partner Taylor were both removed by the impressive Aldridge late, Durham were chasing 292 to win.

A lightning start from McKinney hurried his side towards 50, but Taylor and Allison exchanged wickets in successive overs to check the visitors progress at 49-2.

McKinney continued to play a lead role, racing to a dismissive 39-ball fifty, cracking six fours and two sixes in the process, but all was far from plain sailing at the other end as David Bedingham (17) and Stokes (1) fell in the space of seven balls.

Whilst the aggressive McKinney continued to spearhead his side, the decisive moment arrived courtesy of concussion substitute Ben Gibbon, who was on the field in place of George O’Connor and took the prize wicket of McKinney for 82 when the batter feathered an edge down the leg side.

A stand of 54 between Aldridge and Robinson stabilised the visitors, but their dismissals for 29 and 43 respectively kept Worcestershire in with a sniff at 199 for 8.

A tense finale beckoned when Waite castled Ghafari to take a ninth wicket with Worcestershire’s hopes of a dramatic qualification alive, but a last-wicket rearguard between Robinson and Parkinson did enough to see Durham through to the quarter-final stages.