GARY Pratt continued to press his claim for a move up Durham's one-day order with their top score in the Twenty20 Cup at Derby last night.

But his unbeaten 62 off 44 balls was in a losing cause as Durham fell six runs short of Derbyshire's 157, despite having five wickets in hand. Durham needed 25 off the last over, bowled by Tom Lungley, and after edging the first ball for four Pratt twice found the mid-wicket boundary.

But with seven needed off two balls he failed to connect with the next, assuring the hosts of their third win.

They go to Grace Road for their final group game tonight with a place in the semi-finals at stake, while Durham have a dead match at Old Trafford, in which there seems little point in unleashing Shoaib Akhtar, despite his keenness to get cracking.

Durham were given a blistering start by Nicky Peng, who on the last two championship visits to this ground has scored 90 and 108.

He hit a six and five fours in making 32 off 19 balls but when he was bowled by Lungley the momentum vanished and only Pratt was able to pick it up again.

Derbyshire were all out with one ball unused, Neil Killeen taking two wickets in the last over to become the first Durham bowler to complete a four-wicket haul in the competition.

Durham handed Liam Plunkett his Twenty20 debut in place of Ian Hunter and he struck a vital blow in his second over when he ripped out Mohammed Kaif's off stump.

Derbyshire were struggling at 27 for three when the 22-year-old Indian swung across the line to depart for four. Luke Sutton then took three fours off an over from Killeen but he became Plunkett's second victim off the last ball of the youngster's four overs, leaving him with two for 18.

It was the most economical four-over stint by a Durham bowler to date on a pitch which must have offered much better bounce than in the first Twenty20 match at Derby last Thursday.

It was announced before the match that the pitch for the Nottinghamshire match had been marked "poor" because of very minimal bounce, and Derbyshire were warned that any further one-day transgression in the next 12 months would bring a penalty.

Derbyshire lost skipper Dominic Cork to the second ball of the match after Durham put the opposition in for the third time in this competition.

After Michael Di Venuto took three off Killeen's first ball, Cork was brilliantly caught by Vince Wells, diving to his right at slip.

In the third over Nathan Dumelow went for a big hit and Mark Davies held a steepling catch at mid-on, but Di Venuto remained a big threat as he went into the match with an average of 154 from three innings, having been dismissed only once.

Durham looked fortunate to get him out for 36, reducing his average to 95, when he was adjudged run out by Mervyn Kitchen attempting a second run to Peng at deep square leg.

Di Venuto made his runs off only 23 balls and at 78 for five in the 11th over when he was out Durham could consider themselves on top.

But they lost their grip in the 13th and 14th overs, which produced 34 runs as former Gloucestershire player Dominic Hewson picked up successive balls from Davies for leg-side sixes then both he and Chris Bassano drove Nicky Phillips over the long-on boundary.

Hewson was then yorked by Davies for 36, made off 19 balls. Only five came off the over and Durham kept a tight rein as wickets fell in three successive overs.

Kitchen was again swift to raise his finger when Steve Selwood swung at a ball from Phillips and was hit high on the pad, then Wells nipped one away to hit Bassano's off stump.

Graeme Welch and Tom Lungley put on 21 before the left-handed Lungley tried to paddle the first ball of the last over to fine leg and fell lbw, then Welch drove the fifth ball to long-on, where Plunkett held a juggling catch. Sutton was injured while batting, so Derbyshire took the field with Cork keeping wicket as he is unable to bowl because of an ankle problem.

Peng whipped Welch's opening delivery off his hip over square leg for four and followed up with a back-foot boundary through extra cover and a square drive for three.

After four dot balls from Lungley, Peng drove him over mid-off then took a single to third man to keep the strike again and hoisted Welch's next ball into the crowd at long-off.

A square drive and a crunching blow in front of mid-wicket followed as Peng scored 32 of the 33 which came from the first three overs, the other run resulting from a wide as Phil Mustard had not faced a ball.

When he did he ran it to third man for a single, but Peng pushed forward to the next ball from Lungley and lost his middle stump.

Mustard fell lbw trying to sweep and Martin Love was run out when he called Wells for a sharp single from the non-striker's end and was run out by the bowler, Neil Gunter.

Durham never really recovered from this blow and a stand of 49 between Pratt and Wells still left them with too much to do when Wells drove to long-off in the 15th over.

* Yorkshire Phoenix tonight meet Nottinghamshire Outlaws at Headingley in their last group game in the Twenty20 Cup, aiming to preserve their 100 per cent record in home matches, writes David Warner.

They have already beaten Derbyshire and Durham at Headingley but defeats against Leicestershire at Grace Road and Lancashire at Old Trafford mean they are left with only the slimmest of chances of progressing to the semi-finals.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming should be back after missing Sunday's National League game against Leicestershire with a bruised big toe and they will be looking for another explosive innings from Indian Yuvraj Singh who has so far plundered 150 runs in the competition with 26 fours and two sixes.

Nottinghamshire go into the game with only one win in four matches but another big gate is anticipated even if neither side can progress any further.

Yorkshire (from): Wood, White, Yuvraj, Fleming, Lumb, Blakey, Craven, Hamilton, Bresnan, Silverwood, Gray, Sidebottom, Swanepoel.

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