AS DURHAM step up their search for a replacement for Dewald Pretorius, the South African paceman gave them a taste on Saturday of his match-winning qualities.
He took three of Derbyshire's remaining four wickets in 5.2 overs at a cost of 13 runs to clinch victory by 30 runs. It was Durham's first championship win at Riverside for two years.
"We will be sorry to see him go," said coach Martyn Moxon. "We have identified three or four candidates to replace him and we are contacting them to see if they are available.
"One has already said he is not, but we are doing everything we can to find a bowler of similar ability, and preferably one who can bat a bit."
Moxon ruled out an approach for Lance Klusener, whose loss of form has seen him left out of the South African one-day and Test squads, which Pretorius will be joining in mid-June.
The coach added: "This win will give everybody a huge lift given our results over the last year. When you're not winning confidence is bound to be affected.
"Once the self-belief is there I hope we can get on a bit of a run. Apart from a poor afternoon on Friday, this was a pretty good performance.
"It was very frustrating when we collapsed in our second innings. It has been a feature of our cricket that we get into reasonable positions then blow it in one session or even half an hour of poor cricket.
"It has been happening for too long. We talk about it and we discuss what we need to do in those situations, but it's down to the players to put it into practice."
Clearly displeased with one or two players, Moxon hinted that there could be changes. But two new injuries have not helped.
Vince Wells, whose three wickets for 13 runs on Friday proved crucial, suffered a back injury while bowling and could be out for at least a week.
His place in the field was initially taken by Graeme Bridge on Saturday, but he lasted only four balls.
Dominic Cork, who was on 48 overnight, edged Pretorius above Bridge's head at second slip and he dislocated a finger in trying to take the catch.
Mark Davies went on to field and shortly afterwards Nicky Hatch went on with drinks, prompting the observation that had he been at second slip he could have taken the catch at chest height.
In the next over Cork turned off-spinner Nicky Phillips to fine leg to reach 50 off 47 balls, but the Derbyshire captain seemed far less assured than the previous evening.
He became even more frenzied when off the last ball of the over Phillips had Kevin Dean caught at the wicket.
At 164 for seven Derbyshire still needed 59, and as Cork tried to get after Pretorius he survived another sharp chance when he sliced a drive and Michael Gough was unable to hang on diving to his right at gully.
But Cork then drove again at a wide ball and gave Andrew Pratt his second catch of the day.
Three overs later rain arrived with the score on 172 for eight and on the resumption at 1.20 Pretorius struck with his first ball.
Mohammad Ali's edge was knocked up by Gordon Muchall at second slip and held by Martin Love alongside him.
After 13 more balls rain drove the players off again, but only briefly and Durham finished the job in two overs on the restart.
First there was a brief flurry from Graeme Welch, who punched Pretorius to the cover boundary off the back foot, then swept Phillips behind square for six to reach 23.
Pretorius needed only two balls at Lian Wharton, however, finding the shoulder of the bat for Gough to dive forward and hold the catch at gully.
Durham beat the same opponents at Darlington for their only win last season, while two of their three victories in 2001 came at Kidderminster and Hove.
The other was against Nottinghamshire on June 2, when a declaration set them a target of 318 and Jon Lewis and Martin Love shared a stand of 258 to set up the eight-wicket win. This was the first championship win at Riverside since that memorable day
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