DELIGHTED Durham had cause to be grateful for the presence of the Sky cameras at the Riverside yesterday as they clinched promotion in the Norwich Union League.

After 30 seconds of tension accompanied by the theme music from Jaws, the third umpire was able to confirm that Andrew Pratt's latest piece of brilliance had stumped Graeme Hick for two.

Three overs later the great white shark bit another huge chunk out of Worcestershire's promotion hopes as Pratt kicked the ball into the stumps to run out Vikram Solanki.

This time the Jaws music did not have time to reach its crescendo before Barrie Leadbeater signalled that Solanki was out for nine.

From a position of luxurious comfort at 83 for none in the 13th over the visitors had swum into treacherous waters at 103 for four.

In a match interrupted by two showers, their target under the Duckworth/Lewis method had become 208 off 39 overs after Durham made 212 for five in 41 overs.

With Pratt also holding two catches standing up to the seamers, Worcestershire eventually struggled to 198 for eight and Durham won by ten runs.

Apart from Pratt, who also made 56, Durham's other hero was skipper Jon Lewis, who hit 76 not out off 66 balls. It was his highest one-day score of the season.

Pratt pipped him for Sky's Man of the Match award, but between sups of Moet and Chandon afterwards Lewis said: "The award didn't matter because the team performance was outstanding.

"It's the finest hour in my five years here. There has been progress and it's nice to achieve something you can put a label on.

"It's not the first time we haven't got it right at the start of our opponents' innings. But we have always shown character and held our bottle and we did it again today."

Danny Law, who took the three wickets which got Durham back into the game, had a pain-killing injection in a toe before the match and finished it with a torn hamstring.

Graeme Bridge also had to be helped off after turning his ankle in the field, but both planned to join the celebrations at Martin Love's local pub in Medomsley.

It seemed Lewis's superb effort with the bat would be in vain as Durham-born left-hander Phil Weston set about the bowling of Stephen Harmison.

Only one came off the paceman's opening over and there was no cause for alarm as Worcestershire reached 27 after six overs before they were driven off by rain.

On the resumption Weston hit seven fours in three overs, pulling and cutting with superb timing. And when Ian Hunter replaced Law there were three fours and a wide in his first over.

At 75 after ten overs Law switched ends to replace Harmison and picked up the first three wickets.

Despite reaching a position from which they could cruise to victory, Weston and Singh had started to slog and when Weston swung across the line he was bowled for 43.

Left-hander Paul Pollard tried to run the next ball to third man and edged to Pratt, and suddenly the runs dried up.

Four overs later Hick was out. It was the third time this season that Pratt has brought off a scintillating leg-side stumping standing up to a seamer in a one-day match.

His next trick came when Solanki called Singh for a sharp single and nonchantly neglected to run his bat in as Pratt right-footed the ball into the stumps. Any scouts from Crook Town FC would have been mightily impressed.

A stand of 33 between Singh and David Leatherdale kept Worcestershire in the hunt, but after making 58 Singh went to cut Paul Collingwood and edged to Pratt.

Collingwood struck again when Leatherdale chipped to Love at mid-wicket, leaving Worcestershire needing 45 off seven overs. They never looked like getting them as Hunter and Nicky Phillips kept them under pressure.

Lewis, on the other hand, hammered 43 off Durham's last five overs almost single-handedly. He scored 15 of the 16 runs taken off the 39th over, bowled by Alamgir Sheriyar, including two perfectly-placed fours through the leg side.

He hit seven boundaries in all, three of them coming as he scored his last 26 runs off 14 balls to move narrowly ahead of Nicky Peng at the top of Durham's NUL averages.

Peng, bowled by Sheriyar for 12, had an aggregate of 495 runs at 41.25, while Lewis finished with 373 runs at 41.4.

Peng survived the first of three dropped catches by Worcestershire when he edged Andy Bichel to Hick at second slip.

But by far the costliest mistake came when Lewis, on 23, drove to long-on, where substitute Duncan Catterall failed to hang on.

Worcestershire were also guilty of several fumbles and could have run out both Peng and Andrew Pratt in the opening overs.

On the credit side the only extras they conceded were six wides, two of them bowled by Hick in the one over he had to bowl because Stuart Lampitt, the best bowler, had retired with back trouble.

The first shower arrived with Durham on 46 for one in the 11th over, the match being reduced to 41 overs a side.

Pratt had begun by cutting and pulling Bichel for two fours in the second over and after a successful start to his pinch-hitting role in the floodlit defeat at Worcester he found the same bowlers to his liking again.

A leg glance off Lampitt for his eighth four took him to 50 off 51 balls, but on 56 he was the victim of the one piece of impressive fielding from the visitors.

Love went for a second run to deep mid-wicket and Solanki hit the stumps at the non-striker's end.

Collingwood played on first ball against Lampitt and when Love and Lewis put on 39 in the next ten overs Durham reached the 30-over mark on 132 needing a big acceleration.

But Love immediately deposited a full toss into the hands of deep mid-wicket to fall for 43. Jimmy Daley made 19 off 28 balls, but with Lewis flying at the other end Durham's total proved enough.