Hussey determined to hit back after Trophy defeat

Needing 14 to win off the last over with one wicket standing, few would have backed Derbyshire against Steve Harmison, but South African Ant Botha got the target down to one off the last ball and flipped it behind square for four.

The defeat was a kick in the teeth for Neil Killeen, who came on to bowl when Derbyshire looked out of it with 59 needed off six overs.

His first two overs cost 32 runs, but with the target down to 17 off two he then took two wickets and conceded only three runs in his final over to tip the balance of a thrilling climax back in Durham's favour.

The left-handed Botha slogged the first ball of the last over for a straight four, lofted the next back over Harmison's head for two then turned a yorker behind square for a single, leaving Kevin Dean on strike.

Bowling round the wicket to the third left-hander in the last four batsmen, Harmison went for a yorker but got his line wrong and Dean managed to turn it to fine leg for four.

When Dean scrambled a single off the next it meant Derbyshire needed one off the final ball to tie the scores, which would be enough for victory by virtue of losing fewer wickets as Durham were all out.

A lengthy six-man pow-wow followed, but there was little to discuss other than perhaps trying a bouncer. But with Dean certain to be straight out of his blocks he could probably have run a bye to the wicketkeeper.

So, with the fielders crowding in to save the single, Harmison went for the yorker again but Botha calmly paddled it away for his fourth four to finish on 34 off 26 balls.

Botha's heroics saw him pinch the Man of the Match award from Paul Collingwood as he had also taken four for 44 with his left-arm spin.

Botha, 28, is in his second season with Derbyshire. He is not a "Kolpak" signing as he has an English father and now lives full-time in this country.

After his first defeat as Durham skipper, Hussey said: "It's very disappointing and we are all pretty low at the moment. But we'll be ready for the visit of Somerset tomorrow.

"We will have Liam Plunkett and Mark Davies back in the frame and Graeme Bridge will be in the squad because I hear it might turn at Stockton.

"It was a very tough decision not to play Liam in this match. We agonised over our combinations and could have tossed a coin. But we just felt we had good attacking options with Steve Harmison and Mick Lewis and needed Neil Killeen's experience."

When Derbyshire visited Riverside in the totesport League last season Killeen had figures of 8.3-7-5-2, but as he's not in the championship side this season it will be asking a lot of him to maintain his one-day form.

Although Botha finished the job, it was Hetton-born Graeme Welch who first cast doubt over what looked a certain Durham victory, racing from his overnight 15 to a 46-ball half-century.

Needing 103 off 13 overs with five wickets standing at the start of play to overhaul Durham's 234, Welch was initially restrained and only 15 came off the first three overs, making the target 88 off ten.

Welch then picked up Lewis for six over the short mid-wicket boundary, then narrowly beat Gordon Muchall's throw from deep backward point as 14 came off the over.

Tasmanian Chris Bassano, who had resumed on 42, was also close to being run out by Dale Benkenstein's direct hit as he scampered a single to deepish mid-off to reach 50 off 97 balls.

Bassano fell to the last ball of the day's fifth over with the total on 165, punching a back-foot shot off Gareth Breese into the hands of Hussey at extra cover.

Botha joined Welch and other than the latter blasting Lewis to long-on for four they remained fairly calm for the next two overs.

Durham opted for off-spinner Breese bowling his four remaining overs at the start and the fact that they cost only 17 runs meant Durham should have coasted home.

But the nine overs shared by the three seamers yielded 88 with yesterday's only extra being a leg bye.

Welch first signalled that Derbyshire could win by taking 15 off the 45th over, the first of the day bowled by Killeen.

Again exploiting the short boundary, Welch drove the first ball for four in front of mid-wicket then hit the next out of the ground over long-on.

The target was down to 44 off five, but without adding to his 50 Welch swung at Harmison's first ball and was bowled.

The 100 or so Durham die-hards who had turned out could have been forgiven for thinking it was all over, but Botha had other ideas.

He survived the most difficult of chances on seven, when his former Natal captain, Benkenstein, dived to get his fingertips to the ball at mid-wicket.

In the next over Botha twice made room to hit Killeen through the off-side for four and with 17 coming off the over, the target was down to 21 off three and Derbyshire were favourites.

Harmison conceded only four off the 48th, then Killeen went round the wicket for his final over and bowled left-hander Tom Lungley through an attempted sweep with his third ball.

Killeen then brilliantly held on to a fierce return catch to remove former team-mate Ian Hunter and with only three coming off the over it looked like Durham would earn a home tie against Kent. But it was not to be.

"All credit to Derbyshire for hitting it so cleanly," said Hussey. "They threw caution to the wind and on another day they could have got caught like we did.

"We thought we had worked out the best way of going about it this morning and it seemed to be working with Gareth Breese bowling particularly well.

"We had to back our three experienced seamers to finish the job, but you can't defend a short boundary when the batsmen are swinging from the hip. If they connect it goes for four or six."

l Somerset have left out West Indian all-rounder Nixon McLean, replacing him in their 12-man squad to face Durham today with seam bowler Simon Francis.

England batsman Marcus Trescothick will continue his opening partnership with left-handed Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya while the highly-rated James Hildreth features in the middle-order.

Read more about Durham here.