Durham, v Derbyshire (Friends Provident Trophy)

COMETH the hour, cometh Di Venuto. The man whose lack of runs scarcely mattered during last season's romp to Friends Provident Trophy glory rode gloriously to the rescue for Durham yesterday.

Needing to win their final group game at home to his former club Derbyshire, Durham swept into the quarter-finals on the back of Di Venuto's 138.

It was the county's second highest individual one-day score, behind the 145 made by John Morris in the Benson and Hedges Cup at Leicester in 1996.

While Morris had the satisfaction of seeing his record remain intact, as Derbyshire's Director of Cricket he would not have been impressed with his side's performance yesterday as they lost by 117 runs after Durham scored 298 for seven. The visitors were all out in 37.5 overs for 181.

This was Di Venuto's 14th oneday century, but the team for whom he scored eight in six seasons were unable to curb his prolific pulling and cutting.

There were also some sumptuous drives through the covers in an innings in which he reached 50 off 55 balls and 100 off 109. He had hit 19 fours off 135 deliveries when he was out with two balls of the innings left.

Unless Derbyshire scrape through by virtue of Yorkshire losing at home to Lancashire tomorrow, they will effectively be knocked out through having had two games rained off. When teams are level on points the first deciding factor is number of wins.

But Derbyshire can expect no sympathy from Durham, who were denied victory at Derby through their innings twice being interrupted by a low sun. It would not have happened had the match started at a sensible time.

It was sunshine all the way yesterday, with Dale Benkenstein winning the toss for the first time in the competition this season.

There was an element of surprise about his decision to bat as Durham have been put in every time, apart from at Derby, and have generally looked uncertain what their target should be.

The fact the same pitch was being used as in Sunday's match against Scotland might have contributed to the decision, and the positive approach paid off.

Durham had 82 on the board after 11 overs. Di Venuto pulled Tom Lungley's first two balls for four then added only two singles in the next seven overs as Phil Mustard dominated.

But the wicketkeeper fell for 24 when he drove at left-armer Graham Wagg and edged to wicketkeeper Frederik Klokker.

That brought in Will Smith to contribute 55 from 85 balls to a stand of 142. He provided a useful foil for Di Venuto and there were some pleasant strokes among his six fours before he was run out in the 33rd over.

There were a couple of hiccups around the 40-over mark as Neil McKenzie holed out for 15 at deep mid-wicket and Benkenstein was caught low down at wide mid-on.

But Ben Harmison provided 29 off 23 balls as 83 came off the last ten overs.

Durham brought in Mark Davies for his first one-day appearance of the season in place of Mitch Claydon and he made a breakthrough in the second over.

If Derbyshire were to challenge they needed a big score from left-hander Chris Rogers, but he fished at a good ball from Davies which left him just enough to take the edge on the way to Mustard.

Dan Birch, another left-hander, briefly looked dangerous as he merely leant on a ball from Callum Thorp which sped to the cover boundary then drove the same bowler over long-off for six.

But on 23 he miscued an attempted pull to mid-on and skipper Rikki Clarke fell in similar fashion after making 18.

At 89 for three after 20 overs Durham called on Gareth Breese, whose place in the one-day team has been coming under threat from Paul Wiseman.

It was a good move by Benkenstein as Derbyshire's situation helped Breese to pick up five confidence- boosting wickets after he had taken only one in the previous four games.

With the help of two stumpings by Mustard, Breese finished with five for 41, his best one-day figures for Durham.

SCORBOARD

Durham v Derbyshire At Riverside

Durham

M J Di Venuto b Langeveldt...138

P Mustard c Klokker b Wagg ...24

W R Smith run out ... 55

N D McKenzie c Clare b Lungley ... 15

D M Benkenstein c Wagg b Needham ... 4

B W Harmison lbw b Wagg ... 29

G T Park run out ... 0

G R Breese not out ... 9

C D Thorp not out ... 3

Extras (lb4 w9 nb8 pens 0) ...21

Total 7 wkts Innings Complete (50 overs) ...298

Fall: 1-38 2-180 3-209 4-214 5-272 6-275 7- 295

Bowling: Lungley 10-0-86-1. Wagg 10-1-46-2.

Langeveldt 10-1-45-1. Clare 10-1-51-0. Needham 10-0-66-1.

Derbyshire

S D Stubbings c Park b Breese ... 33

C J Rogers c Mustard b Davies ... 2

D J Birch c Benkenstein b Thorp ... 23

R Clarke c W R Smith b B W Harmison ... 18

J L Sadler c Park b Breese ... 46

G G Wagg c W R Smith b Breese ... 0

F A Klokker st Mustard b Breese ... 11

J L Clare st Mustard b Benkenstein ... 8

C K Langeveldt c W R Smith b Breese ... 26

J Needham not out ... 7

T Lungley lbw b W R Smith ... 2

Extras (b1 lb2 w2 pens 0) ...5

Total (37.5 overs) ...181

Fall: 1-4 2-43 3-69 4-94 5-94 6-121 7-145 8-153 9-173

Bowling: Thorp 6-0-30-1. Davies 8-1-31-1.

B W Harmison 4-0-22-1. S J Harmison 5-0-18-0.

Breese 9-1-41-5. Benkenstein 5-0-30-1. W R Smith 0.5-0-6-1.

Durham beat Derbyshire by 117 runs

Friends Provident Trophy

North Division

.................................P W L D N Pts RR

Durham .................... 8 5 3 0 0 10 0.43

Yorkshire .................. 7 4 2 0 1 9 0.54

Derbyshire ................ 7 3 2 0 2 8 -0.14

Lancashire ................ 7 3 3 0 1 7 0.24

Scotland.................... 7 1 6 0 0 2 -1.09