MIKE Hussey got the Durham show back on the road last night as his 97 carried them to a six-wicket win in the floodlit totesport League match at Derby.

Although they have played three games more than second-placed Sussex, victory took Durham back to the top of division two.

Skipper Hussey, faced with a Derbyshire total of 223 for seven, was always in control of a well-paced reply.

After an opening stand of 46 with Nicky Peng, he put on 48 with Paul Collingwood, who played well for 26 until he tried to run left-arm spinner Ant Botha to third man and played on.

That brought in Gordon Muchall at 94 for two in the 22nd over and the total had progressed to 140 ten overs later when Derbyshire brought back Ian Hunter for his second spell.

As in his first he began with a wide, then bowled a long hop which Hussey pulled for four, and from that point Durham coasted home.

They needed six off three overs when Hussey skied an attempted sweep off young off-spinner Jake Needham.

With the scores level in the penultimate over Gordon Muchall was bowled by Hunter for 70 but from the next ball Gareth Breese scampered the winning leg-bye.

As Derbyshire were without Kevin Dean, Mo Sheikh and Andy Gray there was no great threat in the bowling and they will be in a similar predicament for the championship match starting today.

After choosing to bat, Derbyshire sauntered along to 95 for four after 25 overs against tight bowling from an all-seam attack.

After openers Michael Di Venuto and Steve Stubbings both drove early fours they were denied the chance of any repeat.

From the side which lost to Warwickshire on Sunday Durham brought in Graham Onions for Gary Pratt, giving themselves plenty of bowling options while weakening the batting.

Onions removed both openers in the sixth and eighth overs. He swung one into the left-handed Di Venuto to have him lbw, then Stubbings took a stride down the pitch and edged to Phil Mustard.

Hassan Adnan scored only one in his first seven overs before cutting Liam Plunkett for four after the Teessider had opened up with a maiden. But Adnan made only 11 of 36 balls before he shaped to work Neil Killeen to mid-wicket and fell lbw and in the next over Dale Benkenstein swooped from mid-on to run out Tasmanian Jon Moss for 28.

Three overs from spinner Gareth Breese merely helped former Zimbabwe Test player Travis Friend accelerate the scoring. He drove Breese over long-on for six and hit six fours in contributing 52 to a fifth-wicket stand of 90 in 17 overs with skipper Luke Sutton.

Collingwood also came under fire, although he should have had Friend out from the stroke which took him to 50 as Peng dropped a straightforward catch.

Onions was recalled and Friend failed to capitalise on his escape as he went back for a suicidal second run to third man and was run out by Muchall.

In the 41st over Sutton went for a big drive and skied to mid-off, leaving Onions with three for 39 from his nine overs.

Two more wickets fell in the late slog before Graeme Welch inflicted his usual damage on his native county by taking 17 off the last over. Welch finished on 37 off 24 balls, but once he and Hunter had handed Durham their first 11 runs in extras they were on their way to a comfortable win.

Read more about Durham here.