Australian opener Jimmy Maher recorded his second successive single-figure score in his first match for Durham, as the hosts made it 59 for 3, but centuries from Paul Collingwood and Dale Benkenstein sent them back in the lead. The pair added 206 runs together before Collingwood was out for 112 – his sixth first-class century in twelve matches – while Benkenstein continued to 162 not out, adding 80 runs with Gareth Breese and 21 for the ninth wicket with Brad Williams before declaring. The declaration set Derbyshire 280 to win in 66 overs, and Michael di Venuto and Steve Stubbings put on 91 for the first wicket to cut that down to 189. They had used two hours to hit those 91, though, leaving two hours for the remaining 189 – and though Stubbings completed his century, the rest of the batting order could not quite hit quite quickly enough, and they finished on 277 for 6 – three runs short of victory.