DURHAM will hope for more of the same from Paul Collingwood and Phil Mustard when they go to Taunton for their CB 40 semi-final on Sunday.

A fun-filled frolic from Mustard launched the county's record 40-over innings at the Oval yesterday as he took up where he left off in his unbeaten 139 at Northampton the previous week.

His 23-ball 50 was only two slower than his Durham record, set at home to Leicestershire in 2007, and he went on to make a scintillating 66 off 31 deliveries.

Collingwood showed all his expertise at this form of the game as he scored his 96 off 83 balls before he holed out in the 35th over when trying to bring up his century with his third six.

Durham's 325 for six earned them a 36-run victory against previously unbeaten Surrey, who were all out for 289 with 3.3 overs unused.

Collingwood and Dale Benkenstein ensured that the flying start wasn't wasted as they countered Surrey's best spell in mid-innings, when experienced spinners Gareth Batty and Chris Schofield were bowling.

The boundary blitz dried up for a while, but they worked the ball into spaces and put Durham in a position to pick up the pace again in the last ten overs, which yielded 95 runs.

Even that couldn't match the rate in the first ten, however, as Mustard hit eight of the first 16 balls he faced for four then stepped across to the off side to pick up Chris Jordan over backward square leg, the ball flying into the stand.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat under heavy cloud, Durham took the amazing gamble of sending Callum Thorp in to take first strike.

They presumably felt that if Surrey skipper Rory Hamilton Brown opened up, as usual, with his own off breaks Thorp was the man to get after him.

The tactic was immediately rendered pointless by Thorp taking a single off the second ball before Mustard hit the next three for four.

Two reverse sweeps were followed by an orthodox sweep before a leg bye kept him on strike. Only an edge on to his pad prevented Mustard from being lbw to Jordan's first ball but the Barbados-born paceman was then driven through the covers for three fours in the over.

With 28 on the board after two overs, of which Thorp had made one, the Australian faced most of the third over, bowled by ex-Somerset man Zander de Bruyn.

Only three runs came from it but Thorp did progress to 15 from 17 balls, courtesy of two edged fours, before he departed to the first ball of the eighth over with the total on 72.

He got out to the sort of bowling he was there to plunder as he was stumped off a wide sent down by occasional off spinner Matthew Spriegel.

More Mustard sweeps ensured that 15 still came off the over, which meant Durham had 86 after eight.

He was going for his 14th four when he was caught at long-on off de Bruyn, but Collingwood and Mark Stoneman ensured that the rate barely slowed.

Stoneman played a couple of lovely late cuts and also heaved seamer Stuart Meaker through the leg side from outside off stump when offered two successive free hits by no-balls.

The left-hander fell lbw for 27 to off-spinner Batty's third ball, but when Indian Test left-armer Pragyan Ojha came on Collingwood hit him for a leg-side six.

Benkenstein survived a tight call for a stumping on seven and was dropped by Tom Maynard at long-off on 19. But with the total on 230 after 30 overs, Batty had completed his stint and after reaching 25 without finding the boundary Benkenstein hit two fours off de Bruyn and drove a third off Schofield.

A leg-side six followed but in going for a repeat, the captain holed out at deep mid-wicket for 48.

Schofield took two more wickets, but also came under fire in his last two overs as Collingwood hit the first two balls of an over for six and four before holing out then Ian Blackwell also cleared the rope.

Surrey's reply was almost stillborn as Steve Davies and Jason Roy departed to miscued pulls in the first four overs. But Hamilton-Brown and Maynard put on 43 in five overs before the captain was run out.

The score had reached 103 for three in the 15th over when the floodlights were switched on just before 6pm and in the next over Thorp bowled de Bruyn with a yorker.

Maynard hit two successive balls from Scott Borthwick for six to reach 50 off 36 balls but was bowled by an off-cutter from Thorp in the next over.

Spriegel and Schofield revived Surrey with a stand of 98 in 12 overs as Durham's spinners came under fire.

When Schofield drove Gareth Breese for two successive sixes Surrey arrived at the 30th over on the same total as Durham at that stage.

Mitch Claydon, whose opening four overs were expensive, returned and had Schofield caught at backward point by Collingwood for 46.

It left too much pressure on Spriegel, but after a couple of lapses Durham were still relieved to see him bowled by a Claydon yorker for 86.

SCORECARD

Surrey v Durham
At The Kia Oval

Durham Innings
C D Thorp st S M Davies b Spriegel 15
P Mustard c Meaker b de Bruyn 66
M D Stoneman lbw b Batty 27
P D Collingwood c Hamilton-Brown b Schofield 96
M J Di Venuto run out 12
D M Benkenstein c Maynard b Schofield 48
I D Blackwell c Schofield b Jordan 25
G R Breese lbw b Schofield 4
S G Borthwick run out 11
M E Claydon not out 2
Extras (lb2 w9 nb8 pens 0) 19
Total 9 wkts Innings
Complete (40 overs) 325
Fall: 1-72 2-90 3-146 4-177 5-258 6-
287 7-306 8-316 9-325
Did Not Bat: G Onions.
Bowling: Hamilton-Brown 1-0-13-0. Jordan
4-0-39-1. de Bruyn 6-0-48-1. Spriegel
1-0-15-1. Meaker 7-0-62-0. Ojha 5-0-37-0.
Batty 8-0-42-1. Schofield 8-0-67-3.

Surrey Innings
R J Hamilton-Brown run out 30
S M Davies c Stoneman b Onions 4
J J Roy c Stoneman b Claydon 5
T L Maynard b Thorp 56
Z de Bruyn b Thorp 19
M N Spriegel b Claydon 86
C P Schofield c Collingwood b Claydon 46
G J Batty run out 9
C J Jordan c Collingwood b Thorp 0
S C Meaker c Mustard b Borthwick 5
P P Ojha not out 1
Extras (lb8 w15 pens 5) 28
Total (36.3 overs) 289
Fall: 1-5 2-22 3-65 4-105 5-130 6-228
7-252 8-254 9-287
Bowling: Onions 7-0-33-1. Claydon 8-0-
77-3. Thorp 8-0-56-3. Blackwell 6-0-38-0.
Borthwick 4.3-0-39-1. Breese 3-0-33-0.
Durham beat Surrey by 36 runs