Surrey look to be out of the running in the southern section of the Benson and Hedges Cup after losing their third consecutive match, this time to Essex. Yorkshire bounced back from yesterday's narrow defeat with a comfortable win over Durham, and Kent narrowly won a rain-affected match against Middlesex.

A fine all-round performance by the Yorkshire captain Darren Lehmann was at the heart of a resounding 124-run win over Durham at Chester-le-Street. The Australian's first major score of the season, 72, helped consolidate the flying start made in the pinch-hitting opener's role by the in-form Craig White who made 71 off 75 balls. Lehmann had begun circumspectly but picked up the rate as the situation demanded.

Anthony McGrath played the anchor role at the other end scoring a steady 37 as the captain opened his shoulders to help Yorkshire reach the healthy total of 271 for seven off their 50 overs. Lehmann then took 3-29 with his innocuous-looking but cannily-delivered lobs as Durham were skittled out for only 147.

Durham's inexperienced attack had been unable to contain the Yorkshire batsmen. Ian Hunter committed the heinous one-day crime of bowling seven wides while Mark Davies bowled three overs for 19 runs and was taken off by his captain never to return to the attack. In contrast the 17-year-old Yorkshire pace bowler Tim Bresnan coped well with the pressure of being the injured Darren Gough's replacement as opening bowler and returned the tidy figures of seven overs for only 13 runs and one wicket.

Zimbabwe's wicket-keeper batsman Andy Flower took the individual award for his contribution to the Essex four-wicket victory over Surrey at Chelmsford. Flower was able to score steadily in chasing the victory target after Graham Napier had smashed 41 off 36 balls to put Essex well ahead of the game and they overtook Surrey's score with 4.4 overs to spare.

The Surrey total of 223 all out off 49.2 overs looked like being much better after opener Mark Butcher's aggressive 62 off 60 balls had seen them reach 107 for one in quick time. But of their middle-order batsmen only Mark Ramprakash made a significant contribution. Ramprakash had come in with the score at 61 for one and was still there at the close on 70 having seen nine wickets tumble at the other end. The next biggest contribution was a mere 19 from Azhar Mahmood. Essex captain Ronnie Irani did most of the damage picking up four wickets.

At the start of the Essex innings Surrey had seemed to be very much in the game thanks to a typically metronomic and incisive opening spell from Martin Bicknell. He had both openers back in the pavilion with only eight on the board and his 10 overs eventually cost only 24 runs. But the other Surrey seamers could not match his accuracy. Alex Tudor went for 57 off his 9.2 overs, although he picked up two wickets, and Ed Giddins went for 45 off his eight overs.

In a rain-reduced 19-over match Kent defeated Middlesex by seven wickets at Canterbury with only two balls to spare thanks to man-of-the-match James Hockley's undefeated 33 off 27 balls. He was able to build on an opening partnership of 84 between Matthew Fleming (50) and Robert Key (26) which had brought the Duckworth-Lewis revised target of 139 within reach. Earlier Middlesex had reached 133 for six mainly thanks to Simon Cook, who top-scored with 39 off 28 balls, and the attacking Irish batsman Ed Joyce, who picked up the scoring rate with 27 off only 14 balls.

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