DARREN Lehmann will not play many better one-day innings than he did for Yorkshire yesterday. Thanks to his highest one-day score for his county, 119 from 133 balls, Yorkshire reached the Benson and Hedges Cup semi-finals for the seventh time after making a total that was a daunting one in the conditions.

When Durham reduced Yorkshire to two for two in the second over, Lehmann probably stood between them and a place in a semi-finals for the first time. On the same pitch that was used for Sunday's Texaco international, Melvyn Betts and Simon Brown were proving a handful, extracting bounce and consistent movement off the seam. Michael Vaughan was repeatedly beaten - three times alone in Betts' second over.

Immediately, however, Lehmann sought to wrest the initiative, aware of Betts' inexperience and Brown's lack of match practice. For a man playing his first game of the season against county opposition, Brown bowled accurately but he strayed in his third over, allowing the Australian to find his timing with three immaculately struck fours.

Now he was away, driving Betts imperiously through mid-off for four. Betts was seen off with figures of one for 15 in six overs, but Brown's full quota had to be negotiated. He was bowled right through owing to his suspect knee, which eventually forced him off the field. Twice when 25, Lehmann nearly fell to him.

Good fortune embraced Lehmann for a while longer when, first, a top-edged cut off John Wood just cleared third man and then Paul Collingwood dropped him at backward point in Michael Foster's first over. Lehmann, 36 at the time, was masterly thereafter.

Finding the gaps with slide-rule precision, he at first milked the support bowling before destroying it. Against the off-spinner Nicky Phillips, who might have been a threat on a pitch offering turn, he persistently gave himself room to improvise. Twice, he reverse-swept him for four. In all, he hit 15 boundaries.

Lehmann, who won his second Gold Award, put on 184 in 39 overs with Vaughan - a competition third-wicket record for Yorkshire. Vaughan, cutting skilfully and dealing mainly in ones and twos, made 70 from 124 balls before a huge off-break from Phillips bowled him.

Durham's weakness lay in their fifth bowler for Wood's figures did not do him justice. Foster, once on the Yorkshire staff, was so erratic, bowling eight wides, that David Boon was forced to employ Collingwood despite a sore shoulder. Collingwood was even more expensive as Richard Blakey and Bradley Parker slogged 40 off the last 20 balls of the innings.

The visitors soon lost Jon Lewis to a 'snorter' before Nick Speak was also caught at first slip. At 61 for two in the 15th over, Durham were offered the light but, surprisingly, a rusty David Boon refused it. He and Stewart Hutton managed only 30 in the next 12 overs before the Tasmanian was out, giving himself room.

Gavin Hamilton completed a fine spell by having Hutton caught behind off a brute of a ball and, when Martin Speight fell to a Darren Gough inswinger, the game was up for Durham.