Phil Mustard's run-a-ball 92 propelled Durham to a comfortable victory in tonight's floodlit Pro40 League match against Worcestershire, who limped to 129 all out.

Durham's score of 274 for four was three more than their previous best in a 40-over match at their Riverside ground, Dale Benkenstein achieving the target, plus his own half-century, with two fours off the last two balls, bowled by Richard Jones.

Nothing would go right for Worcestershire until they broke the opening stand of 71 in the eighth over. Opening bowlers Matt Mason and Gareth Andrew both began with wides, and shies at the stumps were also off target as several risky singles were scrambled.

One finally found the mark as Ian Blackwell, who drove Mason for two sixes in the fifth over, got carried away and ran for a miscue to Vikram Solanki at mid-off.

The Sky TV replay showed Blackwell was almost a yard short and as he had thrashed 36 off 24 balls the tempo inevitably fell as Ben Harmison played himself in.

But the tall left-hander was soon playing nicely off his legs and finding the gaps to keep the board ticking over, while Mustard throttled back after the early onslaught to reach 50 off 49 balls.

He followed up by reverse sweeping left-arm spinner Ian Fisher to fine leg for four then drove a straight six in the ex-Gloucestershire man's next over.

Two more perfectly-executed reverse sweeps flew to the boundary, but Harmison departed for 30 when he drove Daryl Mitchell straight to extra cover.

Will Smith was run out for 19 by a deflection at the non-striker's end and Mustard fell in the next over when he went for a big hit off Moeen Ali's off spin and was caught at short third man.

Ali proved the most economical bowler but was given only three overs before Benkenstein hit an unbeaten 51 off 31 balls as he dominated a stand of 86 in 11 overs with Kyle Coetzer.

After Solanki got an inside edge into his stumps off Liam Plunkett in the third over of the reply, Steve Davies briefly kept Worcestershire in the hunt.

But he fell for 36 when he pulled Harmison to Plunkett at deep square leg, and once the Durham spinners came on after 16 overs the pressure quickly mounted.

Blackwell had Stephen Moore stumped, Ali caught at long-on and Gareth Batty at short extra cover, while Gareth Breese pinned Ben Smith lbw as the visitors slumped from 89 for two to 108 for six.

Durham were then able to bring on 19-year-old leg-spinner Scott Borthwick, making his one-day league debut, and with his third ball he clung on to a return catch from Andrew. He also had Fisher caught at long-on as the visitors were all out in 30.1 overs.