YORKSHIRE made a complete pig’s ear of chasing a modest Durham total at Riverside last night, handing their rivals a Twenty20 Cup lifeline.

Looking rudderless without skipper Anthony McGrath, the visitors suffered two runouts in the first three overs and it needed a last-wicket stand of 28 to take them past the lowest total in seven seasons of English Twenty20 cricket. Yorkshire finished on 90 for nine to lose by 41 runs.

A second successive win for Durham and a second defeat of the week for Yorkshire left both teams on eight points with two games left. They are in joint second place in the group with Leicestershire, who lost heavily to Nottinghamshire last night. Grace Road plays host to Yorkshire on Friday and Durham on Sunday.

With McGrath again absent because of a whiplash injury following a car accident, Jacques Rudolph put Durham in on a glorious evening in front of 5,000 fans, only for heavy cloud to roll over at the interval.

Not that that had any bearing on the two run-outs, but it certainly didn’t help Yorkshire’s chances of recovery from four for three.

They then handed three wickets to Ben Harmison, whose final victim was Michael Vaughan, who drove straight to deepish mid-off to make it 30 for six.

By that stage Durham’s 131 for seven had grown to formidable proportions and Rudolph must have been questioning his handling of Rana Naved-ul-Hasan.

The Pakistani had been the competition’s most effective bowler in the first batch of six games, but looked out of sorts as he delivered three wides and a no-ball in his one over at the start last night.

It seemed Yorkshire had decided to regard him as a batsman, sending him in to open, only for his miserable night to continue as he was run out without facing a ball.

Andrew Gale set off for a run to cover, hesitated, then went again, leaving Rana hopelessly stranded. This is not the sort of treatment guaranteed to fire his enthusiasm.

Mitch Claydon banged in the first ball of the second over, achieved good lift and Gerard Brophy edged it to Phil Mustard.

Then Vaughan played Neil Killeen behind square and set off for a run. Gale responded but was run out by a razorsharp pick-up and throw from David Warner.

Rudolph cut Harmison for a rare boundary before making room to repeat the shot, only for the ball to run down his bat into the stumps.

A straight ball defeated Tim Bresnan’s airy drive, and Vaughan had made 16 of the 30 runs when he departed.

Three more succumbed through desperation until Adil Rashid and Deon Kruis, coming together at 62 for nine, ensured that Sussex’s record low of 67 against Hampshire in 2004 was overhauled.

Yorkshire had previously held a one-day stranglehold over Durham this season, winning all three contests, but they now face a tough task to pick themselves up at Grace Road.

Warner launched the Durham innings very impressively on his home debut, only to fall for 19 in the fourth over when he tried to hook Bresnan and skied a catch to Rashid at deep square leg.

Bresnan was jubilant, having been greeted by a flat-batted boundary through extra cover followed by the finest of leg glances.

Warner had also shown he could strike powerfully down the ground as he cleared the rope on the first bounce off the otherwise miserly Kruis.

Although Mustard saw less than his share of the strike, he was mysteriously subdued in taking until the tenth over to pull Azeem Rafiq for his first boundary.

With 68 on the board at the halfway stage, Kyle Coetzer advanced to meet Rashid’s first ball on the full and hit it straight down Kruis’s throat at long-on.

In the next over Mustard was caught in the same spot by Gale, getting too much elevation when attempting a huge drive off Rafiq.

The talented young spinners seemed to relish the chance to bowl in tandem and continued to shackle the middle of the innings.

Rashid should have had a second wicket when Gale dropped a steepler at mid-on with Ian Blackwell on nine, and Bresnan was the beneficiary of the pressure created by the spinners.

When he returned for the 16th over Dale Benkenstein tried to whip his first ball through mid-wicket and lost his off stump. Three balls later Blackwell unerringly picked out deep mid-wicket.

Will Smith spoilt Rashid’s figures with two successive fours in his final over, one clubbed in front of mid-wicket, the other cut stylishly to the opposite corner. But a direct hit by Rafiq, coming in from wide mid-on, ran out Smith and there were no boundaries in the last three overs.

It seemed Durham were about 20 below par, but Twenty20 continues to be full of surprises.

Durham v Yorkshire At Riverside

Durham Innings

P Mustard c Gale b Rafiq ......................26

D A Warner c A U Rashid b Bresnan .....19

K J Coetzer c Kruis b A U Rashid ..........18

D M Benkenstein b Bresnan ................11

I D Blackwell c A U Rashid b Bresnan ...14

W R Smith run out ...............................11

G J Muchall not out ............................14

G R Breese run out ............................. 3

B W Harmison not out ........................ 1

Extras (b1 lb2 w9 nb2 pens 0) ....14

Total 7 wkts Innings Complete (20 overs) ............................131

Fall: 1-29 2-68 3-76 4-94 5-99 6-114 7-126

Did Not Bat: M E Claydon, N Killeen. Bowling: Kruis 4-0-21-0. Naved-ul-Hasan 1- 0-7-0. Bresnan 4-0-26-3. Pyrah 2-0-14-0. Rafiq 4-0-24-1. A U Rashid 4-0-27-1. Shahzad 1-0-9-0.

Yorkshire Innings

A W Gale run out ................................ 1

Naved ul-Hasan run out ..................... 0

G L Brophy c Mustard b Claydon .......... 1

M P Vaughan c W R Smith b B W Harmison ......16

J A Rudolph b B W Harmison .............. 6

T T Bresnan b B W Harmison .............. 3

R M Pyrah b Blackwell ......................... 5 A U Rashid not out ..............................28

A Shahzad c K J Coetzer b Breese ...... 3

Rafiq c Muchall b Breese ..................... 7

G J Kruis not out .................................12

Extras (b2 lb2 w2 nb2 pens 0) .... 8

Total 9 wkts Innings Complete (20 overs) ..................................90

Fall: 1-0 2-1 3-4 4-19 5-23 6-30 7-46 8- 51 9-62

Bowling: Killeen 4-1-15-0. Claydon 4-0-15- 1. B W Harmison 3-0-20-3. Benkenstein 1- 0-3-0. Blackwell 4-0-11-1. Breese 4-0-22-2. Durham beat Yorkshire by 41 runs.