WHEN an enthralling four-day contest came down to a classic one-day finish Yorkshire had the very man to thwart Durham's bid for a fifth successive championship win yesterday.

Australian Ian Harvey is not known for taking championship wickets, but there is probably no better death bowler in the world and he strangled Durham just when they looked like snatching a remarkable victory.

In the end it could have gone either way, but it ended in a draw with Durham on 226 for eight, 19 short of victory.

They needed 38 off eight overs with four wickets left when Harvey came on to bowl into a stiff wind and in three overs he took one for two, at which point Durham seemed to have settled for the draw.

With 26 still required off two overs Mark Davies survived a hard, low chance to second slip off Harvey then drove him for four and three.

It still left 19 to be scored and two balls from Deon Kruis were down the leg side in what turned out to be a maiden.

Durham would surely have reached their target of 245 had it not been for four interruptions for rain, plus the loss of 14 overs at the start of the innings on Sunday evening.

Skipper Mike Hussey took his six-week leave of Durham for one-day international duty with an innings of 61, a first-class average of 89.3 and a good deal of frustration over the weather.

After the longest rain break Durham had to score 140 in 32 overs in the final session with eight wickets standing.

When it came down to 59 off the last ten with four wickets left any result was possible, a fitting end to a wonderful top-of-the-table contest, which had more twists than the Hampton Court maze.

As in the five-wicket win against Somerset at Stockton, Durham looked like feeling the benefit of their experienced signings as Gareth Breese joined Dale Benkenstein.

Coming together at 98 for four in pursuit of a very similar target, they put on 91 at Stockton with Breese remaining unbeaten on 79.

Following his carefully-crafted 64 in the first innings in this match he was quickly into his stride as 21 came off two overs.

Benkenstein, on 19, edged Tim Bresnan over the slips for four and they were also helped by four leg byes before Harvey replaced Bresnan and bowled a maiden.

Chris Silverwood then came on for Kruis, who had bowled 29 of the 31 overs from the Finchale End, taking four of the six wickets.

Benkenstein played Silverwood's fourth ball just in front of square on the off-side and ran, but Richard Dawson swooped from cover and hit the stumps to run out Breese for 13.

Harvey conceded only one in his next over and with 33 needed off five Liam Plunkett helped take seven off Silverwood, only to play back and fall lbw to Harvey's next ball. Benkenstein was left unbreaten on 28 off 78 balls.

When play began on schedule with Durham on 53 without loss, needing a further 192 to win, they were instantly rocked by losing wickets to the second and fourth balls of the day.

Kruis found steep bounce from a good length to have Jon Lewis caught by Harvey above his head at third slip, then Paul Collingwood was adjudged lbw after shouldering arms.

The ball only just brushed his pad on the way through to wicketkeeper Ismail Dawood and umpire Barrie Leadbeater deliberated for almost ten seconds before upholding the impassioned appeal.

As in the first innings Gordon Muchall played and missed a few times at Kruis, but he also handsomely straight drove successive balls for four and three before doing well to keep out a shooter from Bresnan.

Hussey added only six to his overnight 27 before the first shower arrived at 11.45. On the resumption an hour later he pulled Bresnan's second ball for four then leg glanced Kruis to the boundary.

But only three overs bowled before the players dashed for cover again, took lunch and returned 23 minutes after the scheduled resumption.

Hussey cover drove Kruis' second ball for four then pulled Bresnan to the mid-wicket boundary to reach 50 off 117 balls with his ninth four.

With the score on 103 for two there was another brief break, but the next passage of play lasted only eight minutes before the heavens opened.

That was at 2.25 and they didn't get back on until 4.10, by which time a strong wind had sprung up.

Harvey had to tack into it, while Kruis sailed in down draught and had Hussey caught at first slip by Phil Jaques for 61 after 27 had been added in five overs.

As Benkenstein settled in only 22 came off the next seven overs then Muchall's excellent innings ended on 47 when his middle stump was torpedoed by a shooter from Harvey.

Again progress was unhurried as 14 came off six overs before Nicky Peng fell for 11 when he tried to cut Bresnan, who had just replaced Harvey and edged to slip, where Matthew Wood held on at the third attempt.

When Phil Mustard clipped his first ball firmly to the mid-wicket boundary the target was down to 73 off 13 overs.

The wicketkeeper then pulled the second ball he faced, from Kruis, to long leg for four, but two balls later he miscued to mid-on and Yorkshire began to sense an unlikely win.

Benkenstein ensured that didn't happen, even if he never really looked like winning it for Durham.