Yorkshire Phoenix employed the new emergency regulation of claiming an extra half hour against Durham Dynamos at Headingley Carnegie on Saturday and it led to them winning their first Twenty20 Cup match of the season by nine wickets with 13 deliveries to spare.

But there was little semblance of normal cricket as the sides thrashed around in semi-darkness for much of the time in Yorkshire's shortest-ever match.

Still, the 4,229 fans seemed happy enough, despite many of them hanging around for almost four hours waiting for the rain to go away and for the ground to dry out sufficiently for the game to begin.

Wet weather has wrecked this year's Twenty20 competition but, in order to help bring about positive results, the ECB have decreed the home side can request beforehand that the playing time be extended by 30 minutes.

Yorkshire did this for the Durham match and they are taking a similar course of action for the two remaining home fixtures - against Nott-inghamshire Outlaws on Wed-nesday and Derbyshire Phan-toms on Friday.

Saturday's action began at 7.30pm, two hours later than scheduled, and without the extra half hour it would have become a five-overs slog, which is the shortest possible match.

A revised finishing time of 8.45pm meant that the game could be extended to nine overs and Yorkshire kept a firm grip on their opponents to end a run of three defeats and a no result' contest.

Their chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals, however, remain extremely slim but they will be looking to complete the double over Durham at Riverside tomorrow before taking on leaders Nottingham-shire and bottom club Derby-shire.

Winning the toss, Yorkshire put Durham in to bat and restricted them to 65 for nine, with left-arm spinner David Wainwright claiming three wickets for six runs in two overs.

They were the best figures ever recorded for Yorkshire in Twenty20 cricket and earned the 22-year-old the man-of-the-match award.

Wainwright triggered a collapse which saw Durham go on to lose five wickets in a nine-ball spell for the addition of seven runs.

He began it with his second ball by pinning Scott Styris lbw attempting a reverse sweep for 27 off 16 deliveries with two fours and two sixes and, in the same over, Ottis Gibson drove him into the hands of Andrew Gale at long on.

In his following over, Wainwright had Gareth Breese slicing a catch to Jacques Rudolph at backward point before Garry Park and Paul Wiseman were both run out as a result of throws to the wicket-keeper by Chris Gilbert and Anthony McGrath.

Durham's first two wickets were claimed by Tim Bresnan, who dismissed Phil Mustard lbw and had Dale Benkenstein caught behind, and the final one fell to Darren Gough, who knocked back the off-stump of Steve Harmison.

Craig White showed York-shire meant business by planting Gibson's first ball over mid-wicket for six and although he edged Harmison to wicketkeeper Mustard at 19 in the second over, Gerard Brophy and McGrath made sure the innings did not disintegrate.

They hurried Yorkshire to victory with an unbroken 47 stand, Brophy finishing unbeaten on 31 from 21 balls with five boundaries while McGrath had one four and one six in his 20.

McGrath also produced the most exciting shot of the match when he pulled Harm-ison high into the West Stand.

Although most spectators behaved properly, there were worrying signs that an unruly element is creeping in to Twenty20 cricket and security needs to be stepped up.

Some youths managed to get on to the players' balcony for a while and fighting broke out in the West Stand shortly after the match and had to be dealt with by stewards.