Ireland captain William Porterfield has carried reigning north group champions Warwickshire to a five-wicket win in their opening Friends Life t20 match against Durham at Chester-le-Street.
He made 83 off 53 balls before being run out with the scores level on 151 and two overs left.
Warwickshire's other star was 22-year-old medium pacer Steffan Piolet, who took two wickets for 19 runs in four overs.
He put the brake on Durham after they were put in and Phil Mustard and Gordon Muchall had 55 on the board after six overs.
In the end the hosts were indebted to Ian Blackwell's unbeaten 46 off 32 balls for a total of 151-3.
Porterfield had the luxury of going to the crease in the second over after Neil Carter had already hit two sixes in his first appearance of the season.
He made 18 off eight balls before lobbing a reverse paddle to short third man.
Although he received little support, Porterfield kept Warwickshire ahead of the clock as he raced to 50 off 30 balls, driving sixes off Mitchell Claydon and Paul Collingwood.
Collingwood's first over cost only five and judging by the time it took the third umpire to decide Porterfield had not been stumped on 35 it must have been close.
But there was no further tension, even when the third umpire was called upon again to decide that Porterfield had been run out when he set off for the winning single and Rikki Clarke sent him back.
Clarke made sure of victory by driving the next ball for four past mid-off.
