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| A gloomy Riverside Stadium in Chester-le-Street |
Durham all-rounder Ben Stokes hit a maiden ODI century while there was a crucial five-fer on debut for 25-year-old Nottinghamshire seamer Jake Ball.
It was an exciting win at the start of a potentially tricky series with two more One-Dayers scheduled ahead of three Test matches and then a full winter tour of India.
But it was also a victory undermined by events earlier this week which resulted in the demotion of Durham County Cricket Club to Division Two of the County Championship.
On the surface, the decision to relegate Durham seems fair enough.
Bailed out to the tune of £3.8m by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), this relegation appears no different to the Football League deducting points off its teams for going into administration, something which has happened with some regularity since 2000.
However, Durham's overall punishment - which includes points deductions in all competitions for 2017 - was surely far too harsh in that it also renders the whole of next season almost pointless.
Most crucially, though, it seems to have entirely escaped the ECB as to how Durham have landed themselves in this situation.
The awkward truth for the governing body is that it is complicit.
THE DEMISE OF DURHAM The sanction in full
(1) Relegation to Division Two of the County Championship for 2017. Further deduction of 48 points to be made at the start of the 2017 season.
(2) Four-point penalty in the T20 Blast and a two-point penalty in the One-Day Cup in the 2017 season.
(3) All non-player related ECB competition prize money due to Durham for the 2016 season to be refunded to ECB or withheld until all debts owed by the club to ECB have been settled.
(4) Durham to be subject to a revised salary cap from April 2017 to April 2020 under the ECB’s Team Salary Payment (TSP) Regulations, set at a level to be determined annually by the ECB Board.
After all, here is exactly what has happened: in 1992, Durham became the first new county to be given First Class status for 70 years.
The award, however, came on the proviso that the club would construct an international standard ground.
In this matter, Durham delivered on their side of the deal - although, to this day, the location of the Riverside Stadium in Chester-le-Street, rather than the city of Durham itself, is rather baffling.
Nevertheless, Durham also invested in an academy which has produced the likes of Paul Collingwood, Steve Harmison, Mark Wood, and Stokes - all local lads who have gone on to make international appearances.
And, in 1999, the Riverside held its first One Day international - Pakistan v Scotland in the World Cup.
In 2003, it hosted its first ever Test, England v Zimbabwe, and everything seemed to be going to plan. By 2009, though, Sophia Gardens in Cardiff and the Rose Bowl in Hampshire had both also joined the Test circuit.
The problem then was that there were suddenly nine Test-standard venues for a total of seven Tests per year, two of which were allocated to Lord's.
In an ideal world, the ECB would have forced Lord's to give up one of its matches - but the history of the ground and its ability to attract a large capacity crowd in London always made this unlikely.
As such, with eight grounds competing for only five matches, the remaining Tests should have been allocated on a completely fair rota basis.
Instead, the ECB saw the chance to make a quick buck and so provoked a bidding war for each of its matches.
Inevitably, the more powerful counties usually won the right to stage the more attractive games - leaving the likes of Durham to bid for early- or late-season affairs, none of which would have been their first choice.
Of course, it was not always like that - in 2013, Durham staged an Ashes Test which England won to seal the series. In doing so, though, the club had paid through the nose for the privilege.
The system, quite frankly, was and still is unsustainable - and there is a feeling that Durham are probably better off out of it, the Riverside having now lost its Test status.
At this rate, though, Durham will not be the last victims - indeed, they were not the first.
In Cardiff, Glamorgan allowed the taxpayer to pick up the bill with the local council writing off the debt. Meanwhile, Warwickshire owe Birmingham City Council around £20m and have already benefited from a "repayment holiday".
Even Yorkshire - the most powerful of all of the counties - found itself £24m in debt, only to be saved by a single benefactor Colin Graves. Hampshire, with Rod Bransgrove, were similarly fortunate.
It is clear then that there are inherent structural problems in the domestic set-up.
Unfortunately, the response of the ECB has been typically closed-minded, a criticism which could be levelled at the sport of cricket as a whole.
There is really no point in putting cricket up against football in terms of comparisons - yes, the latter also has issues with its greed and bad governance but it will also always have far more reach and ability to make money.
However, a far better comparison can be made with rugby union. Of the two sports, cricket started its World Cup first - in 1979 - but, despite this, the tournament has only once featured as many as 16 teams.
By contrast, the Rugby World Cup - which began in 1987 with 16 teams - has had 20 competitors since 1999.
The expansion decision came despite a series of maulings for lower ranked nations in 1995, including an infamous 145-17 thrashing for Japan at the hands of New Zealand.
But, in the last 20 years, the weaker nations have gradually improved, and Japan are probably the biggest example of this.
Last autumn at the World Cup, the Red Cherries even beat South Africa, and the Japanese will also become the first Asian nation to host the tournament in 2019.
Of course, cricket - like any sport - is not averse to its shock results - but, despite their efforts, the likes of Ireland and the Netherlands have largely been left out in the cold.
All of this may seem to have little to do with Durham. However, all that is being pointed out here is that it is dangerous for administrators to take decisions which close the doors on apparent outsiders.
Stokes, still aged just 25, may continue steaming in and thumping boundaries for England for some years yet.
But, having acted so brutally against Durham and damaged their relationship with the north east at large this week, the ECB is unlikely, at best, to enjoy the benefit of another player like Stokes from the region in the next generation.
At worst, professional cricket in the north east could just about die off entirely.
ENGLAND TOURS OF BANGLADESH & INDIA
| BANGLADESH | ||
| ODI series | ||
| 07-Oct | (1) England 309-8 beat Bangladesh 288 47.5 by 21 runs | Dhaka |
| 09-Oct | Second ODI | Mirpur |
| 12-Oct | Third ODI | Chittagong |
| Test series | ||
| 20-24 Oct | First Test | Chittagong |
| 28-01 Nov | Second Test | Mirpur |
| INDIA | ||
| Test series | ||
| 09-13 Nov | First Test | Rajkot |
| 17-21 Nov | Second Test | Visakhapatnam |
| 26-30 Nov | Third Test | Mohali |
| 08-12 Dec | Fourth Test | Mumbai |
| 16-20 Dec | Fifth Test | Chennai |
| ODI series | ||
| 15-Jan-2017 | First ODI | Pune |
| 19-Jan-2017 | Second ODI | Cuttack |
| 22-Jan-2017 | Third ODI | Kolkata |
| T20 series | ||
| 26-Jan-2017 | First T20I | Kanpur |
| 29-Jan-2017 | Second T20I | Nagpur |
| 01-Feb-2017 | Third T20I | Bangalore |
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