NEIL Killeen continued to plough a lone furrow in Durham's one-day attack last night as struggling Sussex put his colleagues to the sword.

Losing the toss in a floodlit match usually spells gloom and the lights all but went out on Durham's totesport League promotion hopes with a 99-run hammering.

Sussex plundered 261 for four, the biggest total Durham have conceded in the one-day league for two years, and their reply fell woefully short on 162-8.

Sussex have more experience than others of playing under lights as they had permanent ones installed in 1998. Only Essex have so far followed their example.

While Durham continue to opt for one floodlit match a season at Riverside, Sussex play four in this competition and this season's Twenty20 Cup.

Apart from the usual bursts of ditties such as Another One Bites The Dust, the county champions' attempts to widen their appeal to the Sussex public included bringing in a vulture last night.

Perhaps it should have been trained to pick at the Durham carcass as they had no chance batting at dew-dropping time in that strange mixture of fading natural light and Brighton illuminations. It was a far cry from Sunday's sunshine at Taunton.

Victory would have taken Durham to the top of the division, but as they began their forlorn pursuit they were reliant on extras to get their score moving.

As the moving white ball brought eight wides in the first 15 overs it reinforced the impression that other than on perfect, warm evenings floodlit cricket is a waste of time in this country. Durham have experienced only one of those, on the night at Worcester three years ago when Nicky Peng scored a century, and they still lost.

Killeen, who struggles for championship wickets, took two for 32 in his nine overs, while four-day hero Mark Davies suffered his third successive limited-overs calamity with none for 56 in eight overs.

Shoaib Akhtar was no better, conceding 65 runs in nine overs and taking his only wicket with two balls of the innings left.

Graham Onions was the second best bowler and regularly clocked 85mph in the Sky-televised match, while Shoaib, the only bowler in the world timed at more than 100mph, was generally around 89 last night.

Choosing to bowl up the hill but with the chilly breeze behind him on a grey evening, the Pakistani sent down two successive no-balls as he handed Sussex a flying start in the opening over of the match, which cost 16.

Off the free-hits which follow the no-balls Ian Ward scored only a single off the first, but Matt Prior wound up for a big hit off the second and the ball flew to third man.

Shoaib then tried a slower ball, which Prior quickly spotted and lofted it back past the bowler for the second of his 14 boundaries.

Prior, an England Academy success last winter, completed his first domestic one-day century off 119 balls and put on 135 in 20 overs with skipper Chris Adams for the third wicket.

Coming together with the total on 92 in the 22nd over, they were content to score at four an over until Ian Pattison came on.

Perhaps they were waiting for him as his first three overs were expensive when Sussex visited Riverside in the C & G Trophy this season.

Brought in because of Peng's injury, this time his opening over went for 14 and the brakes were off.

Sensing that he needed wickets, Jon Lewis recalled Shoaib for the next over but nine came off that, and the only joy for Lewis as he regularly shuffled his bowlers came from Killeen and Onions. He even tried Marcus North, whose three overs of off-spin cost 21.

In the light of England's current struggles, it is strange that Adams played only five one-day internationals and he looked in complete command as he reached his 63rd domestic one-day 50 off 54 balls.

He then drove Gareth Breese over long-on and pulled Shoaib for another six before the Pakistani bowled him between his legs for 81 in the final over.

Killeen had one for 19 in his opening seven-over spell, having left-handed opener Ian Ward well caught by Gary Pratt at backward point.

When he returned for the 42nd over he had Prior caught at long-on with his fourth ball, while Onions' wicket came from a bottom edge by Murray Goodwin to Andrew Pratt.

It took North and Breese until the seventh over to match what Sussex had scored in their first as the conditions dictated that they could hardly get bat on ball.

North eventually played on to Akram, then Lewis also struggled before edging a catch to wicketkeeper Prior off a ball from Robin Martin-Jenkins which cut back.

Breese went back when he should have been forward and was lbw working to leg and at 42 for three and a batsman light following Peng's injury the situation was hopeless.

It was also hopeless expecting Shoaib to try to slog Durham out of trouble by promoting him to No 4. If proper batsmen can't get bat on ball, what chance did he have?

It was left to Gary Pratt, again the top scorer, and Gordon Muchall to salvage respectability in a stand of 57.

Victory had long been beyond them by the time Muchall skied Mushtaq Ahmed to backward point.

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