AUSTRALIAN supersub Mick Lewis bowed out on a high note for Durham last night, helping them climb two places to second in division two of the totesport League.

Three early wickets for Ashley Noffke's replacement had Leicestershire on the ropes at 31 for four and he returned to take the last to finish with four for 13, as the visitors subsided for 113.

Extras were second highest scorer on 18, with Lewis contributing six wides, then Durham rode their luck on a tricky pitch to win the floodlit promotion battle at Riverside by eight wickets.

They gambled by sending in Gavin Hamilton to open on his first senior appearance of the season, and after he and Mike Hussey scored eight off the first six overs the Scot twice turned Ottis Gibson off his legs for four.

Hamilton looked deeply aggrieved to be adjudged lbw to Darren Maddy for 16 with the total on 24, and well he might as two appeals against Hussey looked much better shouts but were turned down.

In the context of the game an opening stand of 24 was a good foundation and Paul Collingwood had the confidence to go for his shots in an unbeaten 51.

Hussey was content to leave anything he didn't need to play at from dangerous left-arm swing bowler Charl Willougby, and had made only six when he looked perilously close to lbw to David Masters in the 15th over. But once he had cut the next ball for four victory was not in doubt.

Masters lost control as Collingwood plundered two boundaries off his next over, then Hussey hooked him for six.

Masters also dropped Collingwood on 20 at square leg off Willoughby, and off the next ball Jeremy Snape missed a sharp chance offered by Hussey at backward point.

After making 460 runs in three championship innings against Leicestershire, Hussey also inside-edged Willoughby just past off stump for four on his way to 30. With the visitors losing interest, the stand of 75 between the two one-day internationals was put together in 12 overs.

Only 15 were needed when Hussey went down the track to the left-arm spin of Dinesh Mongia and was stumped in the 25th over, leaving Gordon Muchall to help Collingwood complete the task.

Whether there is a future for floodlit 45-over matches is open to doubt now that the Twenty20 competition has captured the market for midsummer evening cricket.

The shorter version provides far more excitement, especially as Riverside pitches do not appear to be conducive to the sort of run feast for which the one-day league was invented.

The last three totesport matches here have been a shambles. Derbyshire complained about the pitch after being all out for 82, then Durham themselves were 70 for nine against Warwickshire before Dale Benkenstein's 90 took them to 147.

The white ball used in these pyjama games swings more than a conventional cricket ball and that seemed to be the cause of Leicestershire's early discomfort.

But there was no respite as they later found that Liam Plunkett and Neil Killeen could also move the ball off the seam.

A crowd of 2,400 turned up, about 1,000 down on what Durham initially attracted for these games, although they were consoled by the fact that the corporate hospitality boxes were full.

Playing in his last match before making way for fellow Australian Brad Williams, Lewis opened up with three for 11 in seven overs, which included four wides as he initially struggled to control the swinging ball.

In gloomy conditions which required the lights to be on from the start, Hussey put Leicestershire in to bat and handed the new ball to his Aussie duo, Lewis and Callum Thorp, who was making his totesport debut.

The visitors had edged above Durham into third place on run-rate but only No 3 batsman Darren Robinson put up much resistance before he was ninth out for 30 when he was brilliantly stumped by Phil Mustard off Killeen.

Leicestershire's slide began when Maddy shaped to pull Lewis and miscued to mid-off. Both bowlers were swinging the ball into 20-year-old left-hander Tom New and after making 11 he drove outside a ball from Thorp which hit his middle stump.

Following his 164 in the championship clash, Mongia went for a duck when he drove at a ball slanted across him by Lewis and edged to first slip.

Lewis then swung one away from Hylton Ackerman to remove his off stump before Robinson and Aftab Habib put on 34 in nine overs.

Plunkett then found life in the pitch, forcing Habib to edge to Mustard, then removing Jeremy Snape's off stump.

Lewis returned and after bowling a wide and conceding a single to Masters he bowled last man Willougby to end his Durham career - unless they want him back next year

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