JUST as the monkey on Durham's back seemed about to administer its final kick in the teeth of a season full of misfortune Liam Plunkett came to the rescue yesterday.

With five balls to score 14 runs for victory, he drove Robin Martin-Jenkins for four, six, four to seal an astonishing two-wicket win, which keeps Durham's totesport League promotion hopes alive.

The 19-year-old Teessider is now firmly in the all-rounder class and he proved it in the match against Sussex at Riverside with lively bowling and a superb piece of fielding which brought a crucial run-out.

It followed Plunkett's career-best championship figures of six for 74 against Hampshire last week and he can now look forward to five days against Yorkshire at Scarborough, culminating in the final totesport match next Sunday.

The omens were not good when Gary Pratt got out to the final ball before rain arrived, leaving Durham on 69 for three after 14.3 overs in reply to 214 for seven.

Had play not resumed, Pratt's exit would have spelt the difference between victory and defeat under the Duckworth/Lewis method. He was spared that embarrassment as the rain passed and after the loss of 17 overs Durham were left to score 90 off 13.3 overs with seven wickets standing.

But the omens grew even worse as Gareth Breese cut at the first ball on the resumption and edged it to the wicketkeeper.

Skipper Jon Lewis then put on 59 in 9.3 overs with Gavin Hamilton before both fell in the space of five balls.

Lewis was bowled on the back foot by a Mushtaq Ahmed googly for 48 then Hamilton was lbw for 27 when trying to reverse sweep off-spinner Mark Davis.

Durham needed 26 off three overs and when Martin-Jenkins returned and pinned Graeme Bridge lbw with his first ball it looked all over, especially as only three runs came off the over.

The next, from James Kirtley, yielded eight and as Martin-Jenkins began the final over with Durham needing 15 he had figures of three for ten in four overs.

All that meant nothing to Plunkett and after Neil Killeen took a single from the first ball the youngster smashed the next wide of long-on for four.

Those few fans who had stayed were suddenly on their feet as the next ball sailed high over long-on and a straight drive followed to leave Plunkett on 18 not out from ten balls.

Durham had been 68 for two at the start of the 15th over, already six ahead of where they needed to be at the end of the over under the D/L calculations as long as they had only two wickets down.

Lewis scored a single then Pratt was bowled off his pads by the third ball from Martin-Jenkins and the fall of the wicket lifted the end-of-over requirement by 13 runs to 75.

With three balls of the over left the rain seemed to have washed away the last ray of sunshine in a miserable season.

Within 40 minutes the sun was out again, but with the umpires showing the usual lack of urgency it was a further 20 minutes before play restarted.

Two excellent pieces of fielding in a generally sharp Durham display produced the run-outs which checked Sussex when they looked like making a much bigger total after electing to bat.

Left-handers Ian Ward and Michael Yardy were stepping up the tempo after putting on 93 in 22 overs for the second wicket when Durham struck two vital blows.

Yardy was run out for 46 by an athletic pick-up and throw to the non-striker's end from Plunkett coming in from the cover boundary, then Chris Adams surrendered two overs later.

In his side's two one-day wins against Durham this season the Sussex captain made 68 in a C and G Trophy tie at Riverside and 81 in the floodlit totesport match at Hove.

But he made only one yesterday before he tried to reverse sweep the sixth ball he faced and lobbed a catch to Killeen at short fine leg off Breese.

The exit of the dangerous Adams meant Sussex were unlikely to reach the 230 they probably saw as their minimum requirement on a pitch showing more pace and bounce than usual.

Other than the floodlit setback against Somerset, Durham had grown used to winning totesport home games on sluggish pitches, so it was strange to find something different at this late stage.

It meant that initially the pace and bounce of the impressive Plunkett made him much more effective than Killeen, with the youngster bowling seven overs for 21 runs while Killeen was driven to the off-side boundary six times before being rested after five overs.

He came back to bowl tightly at the end, however, while two edged fours contributed to Plunkett conceding 25 runs from his two overs at the death.

There was also a tight six-over spell from Hamilton, coming on at 49 for one after 11 overs, while Breese and Bridge did well after the left-armer's first over had gone for 11.

Yardy reverse-lapped Bridge to fine leg for four and two in that over and that was the point when the visitors were looking capable of a big total.

But from 107 for one the loss of two quick wickets left Ward and Murray Goodwin to rebuild with a stand of 46 in nine overs.

Again, just when they were looking capable of pushing on, a run out helped restrict them to 62 off the last ten overs, including the 25 off two from Plunkett.

Ward had hit eight fours in making 72 off 97 balls when he called Goodwin for a single to deep gully from the non-striker's end. But he failed to beat the direct hit after Gary Pratt swooped from backward point.

It was just reward as Pratt looked surprised when Ward was given not out on 34 after another direct hit. The batsman also had a lucky escape on 46 when Hamilton readily acknowledged he had caught him on the half volley off Graham Onions at backward point.

Goodwin hit only one four, a cut off Breese, in making 35 off 50 balls before he drove Killeen to Pratt at long-on in the 42nd over and when Bridge was brought back for the 44th he struck twice.

He pinned Tony Cottey lbw for 22 then had Luke Wright caught by Nicky Peng at deep mid-wicket.

Durham got off to a blistering start as Peng set about 19-year-old Wright, hitting three back-foot fours off his second over.

The third was drilled back between the stumps and mid-on, but Peng got carried away and in Wright's next over he tried to pick him up over mid-wicket and was bowled off stump for 24.

Peng was particularly culpable as opening partner Marcus North had fallen in the previous over, harshly adjudged lbw to Kirtley by John Steele, who has not impressed on his visit to Riverside.

Lewis opened up by leaning into a ball from Kirtley which sped through extra cover for four, but on Peng's exit the light deteriorated as dark clouds rolled over and the runs dried up.

The 6ft 5in Martin-Jenkins was hard to get away as he extracted bounce from just short of a length, but Durham were still comfortably ahead of the D/L requirement after taking eight runs from Mushtaq Ahmed's first over.

Three balls later everything had changed. It would have been a cruel end to the promotion bid and the fans who stayed on were certainly given something to cheer about.