MICHAEL Di Venuto made his best Twenty20 score for Durham when he hit 55 against Nottinghamshire at Riverside.

But the real fireworks for the sun-baked crowd came from Dale Benkenstein, who went to the crease in the 15th over and smashed an unbeaten 48, which included five sixes.

By taking 58 off the last four overs, Durham reached 175 for four, only six short of their highest T20 total.

Di Venuto’s previous best was 40 against Leicestershire last season, but he passed that during a blaze of boundaries following a slow start.

The Tasmanian left-hander took three fours of the eighth over, bowled by Mark Ealham, then produced a classical drive just out of the reach of short extra cover before thumping an Andre Adams full toss to the mid-wicket boundary.

There were eight fours in Di Venuto’s 36-ball half-century, but in the 12th over he was caught at long-on off left-arm spinner Samit Patel.

Kyle Coetzer contributed 21 to Durham’s record T20 second wicket partnership of 81, beating the 73 put on by Nicky Peng and Vince Wells against the same opponents at Riverside in the competition’s first season six years ago.

Coetzer continued to face too many dot balls as only eight runs came from the 13th and 14th overs, and when he really needed to press on he got out for 29, trying to sweep Patel.

Phil Mustard’s run of disappointing scores continued when he fell for seven in the fourth over, skying a Darren Pattison slower ball to mid-off.

The other big-hitting left-hander, Ian Blackwell, also failed again, making eight without a boundary before he tried to hit a ball from Luke Fletcher which was slanted across him through mid-wicket and edged it to the wicketkeeper.

Durham were then 112 for four in the 16th over, the same point at which Gareth Breese went in and scored 37 off 15 balls on Friday night. But on the back of two ducks, Will Smith chose to go in ahead of him.

At least the madness of sending in Benkenstein at No 7 was not repeated and he hit the first six of the innings over mid-wicket off Adam Voges’ left-arm spin.

Later in the same over Smith also cleared the mid-wicket rope, although he might have been caught by Adams, who tipped the ball over.

In the 19th over Benkenstein pulled Ealham in front of mid-wicket for a six which thumped into the top of Riverside’s new dual replay screen and scoreboard. Another six to the same area off the front foot swiftly followed as Ealham’s two overs cost 32 runs.

A similar towering effort cleared the rope off Luke Fletcher in the final over, and with Smith unbeaten on 17 the stand was worth 63 in 4.5 overs.