YORKSHIRE Phoenix nudged into the third promotion spot when they beat Durham Dynamos by three wickets with 20 balls to spare in their final totesport League game of the season at Scarborough yesterday.

Now they must await the outcome of Wednesday's match between Somerset Sabres and Nottinghamshire Outlaws at Taunton before knowing whether or not they will make it into the first division.

If Sabres win, Yorkshire are up, but if Notts are successful then it is they who will gain promotion at Yorkshire's expense.

Yorkshire had to work much harder for their tenth victory of the season than had appeared likely when Durham batted first on winning the toss and suddenly found themselves up against it at 16-4 inside six overs.

Their early batting was destroyed by England strike bowler Matthew Hoggard who grabbed three wickets for ten runs with his first 13 deliveries.

He pinned Nicky Peng lbw, bowled Marcus North as he aimed to leg and had Jon Lewis holding out his bat limply to give a catch to Ismail Dawood.

Ian Harvey, released by Australia to play in the game, maintained the pressure by slanting one across Gary Pratt who edged to fellow countryman, Phil Jaques, at slip, but Gavin Hamilton came in to stop the rot with an attractive innings against his former county.

Hamilton held Durham together until the final over when he skied Tim Bresnan to Andy Gray and was out for a career-best 76 from 121 balls.

Durham's total of 178-9 should not have presented Yorkshire with too many problems but they caused hearts to flutter in the 5,205 crowd as they were reduced to 61-4.

Liam Plunkett emulated Hoggard by claiming the first three wickets to fall, dismissing Joe Sayers and Jaques off consecutive balls before snuffing out a promising innings from Michael Lumb by knocking back his off-stump.

Harvey looked capable of taking complete charge of the innings himself but after striking 27 from 32 balls with five boundaries he flayed Graham Onions to square leg where Peng held on to a fast catch.

Once again, Dawood found himself coming in to help Yorkshire out of a crisis, and he carefully added 42 with skipper Matthew Wood before spoiling himself with an unnecessary reverse sweep, then ball bobbing up to give wicketkeeper, Andy Pratt, an easy catch.

At 103-5, Yorkshire still had plenty of work to do but Wood found a more than capable partner in Richard Pyrah, who showed plenty of promise in only his second totesport League match.

Having earlier taken two wickets, Pyrah got Yorkshire back on their feet again with three fiercely struck boundaries in one over from spinner, Graeme Bridge, and he and Wood had put on 66 in 16 overs when Wood chipped Onions high to Plunkett at mid-off and was out for 46.

Pyrah deserved to still be there at the close but with only four more runs required he swung out wildly at Bridge and was bowled for 42, leaving Richard Dawson to come in to hit the winning boundary.

Updated: 11:52 Monday, September 06, 2004