PAUL Collingwood's one-day expertise yesterday propelled Durham to what should prove a winning total in their C & G Trophy tie against Derbyshire at Riverside.

The England player hit four sixes in making 82 off 83 balls but after reaching 191 before the fourth wicket fell in the 44th over, Durham would have hoped to make a few more than 234.

They handed four wickets to left-arm spinner Ant Botha and were all out off the last ball of their 50 overs, Derbyshire replying with 132 for five in 37 overs before bad light ended play at 8pm.

With a home tie against Kent beckoning in two weeks, the match will resume at 10.45 today, when batting is unlikely to be easy for what remains of a modest line-up, needing 103 in 13 overs to win.

Durham decided to save Liam Plunkett for the championship match against Somerset, starting at Stockton tomorrow, and it was beginning to look like a mistake until Neil Killeen ended a spirited start to Derbyshire's reply.

The first two balls of the 11th over were driven and pulled for four and six by Australian Jon Moss to take the opening stand to 46. But the next ball was a beauty, leaving Moss to find the edge on the way to Phil Mustard.

Steve Harmison came on for the next over and Michael di Venuto shuffled into his third ball and was lbw, tilting the tie heavily in Durham's favour.

In his sixth over Harmison struck again, banging one in to find Hassan Adnan's bat handle for Gareth Breese to dive forward and hold a good catch at slip.

With the light fading, Breese then came on to bowl and Ben Spendlove punched his fifth ball straight back for a low return catch.

The fifth wicket fell when Luke Sutton chipped Collingwood to mid-on, where Killeen dived forward to hold a superb one-handed catch.

Saturated areas of the outfield prevented play from starting until 2pm and Mike Hussey chose to bat on winning the toss, no doubt preferring the afternoon sunshine to the prospect of batting at 10.45 this morning.

It looked a wise decision as Hussey contributed 29 to an opening stand of 53 with Jon Lewis, with the scoring rate never much below four an over.

Hussey hooked left-armer Kevin Dean behind square for the first four in the sixth over, but Dean gave little else away in bowling straight through his ten overs for none for 25.

It was when Tom Lungley replaced Graeme Welch that Durham suffered a hiccup. Hussey drove him to the cover boundary to bring up the 50 but shouldered arms to the next ball and was perilously close to lbw. Two balls later Lungley moved another one back into the left-hander and bowled him.

In his next over Lungley skidded one through at shin height to pin Nicky Peng lbw to bring in Collingwood at 59 for two in the 17th over.

Former Durham bowler Ian Hunter replaced Dean and conceded seven runs off his first four balls before tightening up.

He did little, however, to suggest that Durham were wrong to let him go and when he came back for a second spell Collingwood pulled his first ball for six.

He had already hit two sixes over the short boundary on the scoreboard side of the ground off the medium pace of Moss.

The first was driven over long-on and the second clipped effortlessly more towards mid-wicket, taking Durham to 100 after 25 overs.

With Welch quickly being recalled in place of Moss, there was no acceleration in the next five overs and Lewis fell for 45, made off 88 balls, when Botha held a sharp return catch.

Collingwood, equally adept at running the ball to third man as driving it in the opposite direction, reached his 50 off 55 balls and looked to step up the rate when joined by Dale Benkenstein.

The South African lofted Botha over extra cover for six and was also keen to scamper singles, although it might have resulted in Collingwood being run out for 62 had Welch reacted more quickly at mid-wicket.

It was a rare blemish on a sharp performance in the field by the visitors, which included two brilliant catches as Durham surrendered wickets.

The fourth-wicket stand was worth 71 in 14 overs when Benkenstein lofted Botha to long-on, where Dean covered 15 yards and held a tumbling catch.

Collingwood had picked up Welch for his fourth six in the previous over and at that stage Durham were on course for 250-plus.

The vice-captain would have wanted to see out the overs following the loss of Benkenstein, but when Hunter returned for the 45th over the first ball was turned square for his fifth four and the next was clipped straight into mid-wicket's hands.

Durham sent in Mustard ahead of Gordon Muchall and after making seven he smashed Botha for what looked certain to be a flat six over mid-wicket.

The ball was never more than ten feet off the ground and was travelling like an exocet, but the 6ft 3in Chris Bassano, standing just inside the boundary, took the catch above his head.

While Muchall was quickly into his stride and finished unbeaten on 21 off 17 balls, wickets continued to fall. Gareth Breese was lbw trying to sweep Botha, Killeen drove straight to long-off to give Hunter a second wicket, and the last two were run out in the final over.

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