Sussex remain bottom of National League division two after another disappointing show in the day/night game against Durham at Chester-le-Street.

An 11th defeat in 14 one-day games was not what Sussex wanted but, with most eyes on matters in the County Championship, they will remain in buoyant mood ahead of the run-in to the season.

Durham's England duo held the aces in this affair. Paceman Steve Harmison proved his fitness for England's fifth Test against South Africa by claiming 4-43 as the Dynamos won by four wickets.

England one-day all-rounder Paul Collingwood, meanwhile, also continued his impressive return from injury with an innings of 45 after going in at 14-2 in Durham's reply.

Collingwood put on 88 in 19 overs with left-hander Ashley Thorpe before both fell on 102, leaving skipper Jon Lewis to make sure of victory.

On his way to an unbeaten 22, Lewis saw two more batsmen fall to the off-spin of Sussex's acting captain Mark Davis, who finished with 3-16 in nine overs.

Sussex were bowled out for 137 in 38.5 overs on a blameless Riverside pitch.

Harmison was out of luck in his first five-over spell, sending down seven wides in taking none for 20 but he returned to fire out the last four wickets.

He was helped by brilliant catches by wicketkeeper Phil Mustard and Martin Love at first slip, while joint top-scorer Matt Prior (25) sliced an attempted big hit to third man.

As Sussex have bigger fish to fry in the County Championship, they rested skipper Chris Adams and after Davis chose to bat they crawled to 54-3 after 20 overs.

They were initially strangled by the accuracy of seamers Neil Killeen and Mark Davies, and the only time they threatened to break loose was in a fourth wicket stand of 34 between Bas Zuiderent and Robin Martin-Jenkins.

The Dutchman could have been out for one, however, as television cameras suggested that he had gloved a leg-side catch to Mustard off one of Harmison's wides.

Meanwhile, the county's championship hopes were given a helping hand as Surrey made hard work of the opening day of their match with third placed Lancashire at Old Trafford.

Surrey, who went into the game five points behind leaders Sussex, slumped to 148-5 but Jon Batty then hit an unbeaten 152 to lead them to 330-9 at stumps.

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