THE latest episode in a summer of thrilling cricket saw Durham cling on for a draw in an exhilarating climax against Derbyshire at Riverside yesterday.

Looking for the victory which would have virtually guaranteed promotion, Durham's enterprise almost backfired when their generous declaration allowed Derbyshire a glorious chance to pull off their first win of the season.

The visitors needed 18 off the last three overs with four wickets left, but superb bowling by Brad Williams and Liam Plunkett left them three runs short.

Derbyshire wanted 11 off the final over, bowled by Williams, but skipper Luke Sutton and Ant Botha managed only eight and they finished on 277 for six.

Offered a target of 280 in two sessions, which gave them 66 overs, they initially opted for safety first and crawled to 89 for none from 35 overs at tea.

But whatever they had in their cuppa produced a dramatic change as 42 came off the next five overs, and although they slipped to 201 for five with 13 overs left that was when Graeme Welch came in.

The man known as the Ginger Wizard by Derbyshire's five-strong version of the Barmy Army - who had been silenced following complaints - has been a thorn in Durham's side ever since joining Derbyshire from Warwickshire when it seemed he was on his way to his native county.

He put on 50 in eight overs with Sutton before Plunkett was rewarded for his excellent bowling by taking Welch's wicket with 22 on board.

Derbyshire then needed 27 off five overs with four wickets left, but Botha was unable to repeat his match-winning effort in a similar situation in the C & G Trophy tie at Riverside in May.

The four points Durham earned for the draw, plus their four bonus points, were a smaller return that they had hoped for from this match. But the consolation was that nearest rivals Lancashire were thrashed at Northampton and are now eight points behind, although they have a game in hand.

That game is at Chelmsford next week against fourth-placed Essex, who are now 27 points adrift of Durham and unless they pick up at least five against Lancashire Durham will be promoted.

Prior to his lunchtime declaration at 375 for eight, with Dale Benkenstein unbeaten on 162, Durham's acting captain Paul Collingwood said he was looking to set a target of 300.

But he added: "You can't get too bogged down in looking at the table and trying to predict what will happen in the remaining games."

Collingwood's plans were not helped by getting out in the third over of the day after adding only one to his overnight 111.

Derbyshire relied on spinners Botha and Andy Gray to send down the five overs until the new ball was due and Collingwood noted that Gray turned the ball quite sharply, raising hopes that his own off-spinner, Gareth Breese, could do something similar.

But Breese first had a job to do with the bat and contributed 31 to a stand of 80 in 22 overs with Benkenstein before four wickets went down for nine runs.

Breese played back and was bowled by Mo Sheikh then another medium pacer, Jon Moss, took the next three.

Phil Mustard pulled a catch to long leg, Plunkett edged to wicketkeeper Sutton and Callum Thorp was adjudged lbw first ball after shouldering arms.

Williams was sent in ahead of Neil Killeen and hit three fours in making 15 not out off 14 balls.

Benkenstein, continuing to bat flawlessly, made 59 of the 112 runs Durham added in the morning.

He survived a confident lbw appeal from Ian Hunter on 120, but was otherwise untroubled in making his highest score of the season off 260 balls, hitting 24 fours.

The man Durham feared when making their declaration was Michael Di Venuto, but he was unusually restrained after he and fellow left-hander Steve Stubbings had made a brisk enough start with 41 in 12 overs.

They were then tied down by Breese and Killeen with only 16 coming off the next 13 overs before Di Venuto suddenly hit two fours off the off-spinner.

He fell for 36 in the first over after tea, carving Williams to third man, but Stubbings accelerated impressively and Chris Bassano hit 22 off 17 balls before driving Breese to long-on.

After Killeen bowled Hassan Adnan for 17 Derbyshire still looked like cruising it with 84 needed off 15 overs, but they lost two wickets on 201.

Jon Moss was brilliantly run out by Collingwood at backward point, then Stubbings fell for 101 to the first ball of Plunkett's second spell, chipping a catch to mid-wicket.

At that point Durham had a chance of victory, but Sutton and Welch put paid to that.

* Australian Jimmy Maher will make his one-day debut for Durham in place of Mike Hussey in an otherwise unchanged squad for tomorrow's totesport League match at home to Kent, which starts at noon.

Read more about Durham here.