DURHAM snatched victory by one run against Surrey at the Riverside this afternoon.

Surrey all rounder Grant Elliott drove straight into the hands of Liam Plunkett at mid-off and Jon Batty pulled the final delivery to Dale Benkenstein at deep mid-wicket to give Durham a one-run win.

A masterful century from Mark Ramprakash was in vain as Surrey threw away the chance to shrug off their poor start to the season today.

Needing five off the last over with six wickets left in the Friends Provident Trophy tie against Durham at the Riverside, the target was down to two off the last two balls bowled by Ian Blackwell.

It had looked all over when Durham recalled Plunkett for the 47th over and his last two balls were full tosses which Ramprakash whipped behind square for four and six to reach his century off 96 balls. He remained unbeaten on 109.

After winning the toss, Durham would have hoped for a bigger total while Michael Di Venuto and Phil Mustard were sharing an opening stand of 89. But they lost four wickets between the 18th and 25th overs, two of them to leg-spinner Chris Schofield who bowled straight through his 10 overs and conceded just 28 runs.

Schofield atoned for dropping a sitter with Mustard on 31 and Newman also put down an easy catch as the Durham wicketkeeper reached 50 off 55 balls. He was starved of the strike after Di Venuto chopped a ball from Andre Nel into his stumps and fell for 61 when he lost patience and swept Spriegels off-spin to deep backward square.

Spriegel also had Blackwell lbw, but ex-skipper Benkenstein rode to Durhams rescue with an unbeaten 77 off 80 balls. With the help of Plunkett and Callum Thorp, 82 came off the last eight overs for a total of 266 for seven.

Surrey always looked likely winners until the last frantic scramble. After an opening stand of 54 with Michael Brown, Scott Newman put on 109 in 19 overs with Ramprakash.

After Newman edged Plunkett to Phil Mustard for 70, acting captain Usman Afzaal fell lbw third ball to Blackwell, but Ramprakash still seemed to have things under control with the help of Matthew Spriegel and Elliott.

Steve Harmison, who was generally on the mark, had Spriegel caught behind for 22, but it was a good first over back from Mitch Claydon which first put Surrey under pressure.

Claydon opened up with one for 25 in eight overs and when he returned with 56 needed off eight, conceded only three in his first over. His efforts looked to be in vain when Plunkett conceded 17 off the 47th, but Surrey lost their nerve.