Stephen Moore scored a brilliant 83 not out to help give Lancashire a winning start to their Friends Provident Twenty20 campaign against Durham at the Riverside last night.

The Lightning batsman’s 52-ball knock, including seven fours and three sixes, was a career best as he helped his side post a very competitive 179-4.

The off-spin of Steven Croft then finished with figures of 3-18 from three overs as Durham could only reply with 156-8. Lancs won by 23 runs.

Moore, 29, had been heavily involved in the run out of Tom Smith, who hit a confident 44 off 32 balls at the top of the order.

Smith and Moore were not on the same wavelength as the left-hander was stranded in mid pitch as he looked for two in the deep on the off-side in the tenth over of the visiting side’s innings.

After Glen Chapple had won the toss and elected to bat, Paul Horton, debutant Simon Katich (seven) and Croft all fell cheaply to Mitch Claydon, Steve Harmison and Gareth Breese.

But Moore, who impressed in this format on the club’s pre-season tour of Barbados, shared 33 for the fourth wicket with Smith and then an unbroken fifth wicket stand of 74 in 7.1 overs with Mark Chilton (18 not out).

They added 60 of those in the last five overs of the innings before Glen Chapple and Sajid Mahmood struck early in the reply.

Chapple had Ian Blackwell caught behind by Gareth Cross, making his first appearance of the summer, and Mahmood had New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor caught on the square leg boundary by Croft to leave the score at 20-2 in the fourth.

Phil Mustard hit 47 off 32 balls, and shared a third wicket stand of 57 in seven overs with Ben Stokes, but his side’s chances were fading rapidly when he was stumped by Cross off Croft in the eleventh over.

And their chances were done and dusted when Croft had Stokes caught at long off by Moore in his next. Durham were 82-4 in the 13th.

Chapple employed four spinners, including the left-arm chinaman of Katich, and he opened the bowling with the left-arm spin of Simon Kerrigan.

Stephen Parry, Croft, who bowled Breese, and Mahmood (2-32 from four) all added further wickets. Lancashire’s next fixture is at home to Northamptonshire next Wednesday, when Kiwi all-rounder Nathan McCullum is expected to make his debut.