Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who flew into London only on Saturday after a brief stint at home in Miami, resumed his love affair with this bleak English summer, guiding Durham to a comfortable seven-wicket win over Surrey at Guildford.

The diminutive Guyanese, who scored 446 runs in three Tests against England earlier in the season and was dismissed just once in making 202 runs in the three one-day internationals that followed, demonstrated to all Durham fans that his appetite for runs remains undiminished. He compiled an unbeaten 80 from 68 balls as Durham chased down their target of 249 with four overs to spare.

Chanderpaul entered the fray at 101 for two and was quickly into his stride. He steered drives dreamily past fielders and lofted the spinners into the stands, assuming immediate command of a Surrey attack too reliant on Harbhajan Singh, the India off-break bowler.

His job was made easier by the pyrotechnics that preceded his entrance, courtesy of Phil Mustard. The aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman made effective use of the fielding restrictions in smashing 63 off 42 balls, including two sixes, before he top-edged a sweep off Harbhajan in the fourteenth over.

Kyle Coetzer, the former Scotland Under19 captain, lent valuable support, driving crisply down the ground and rotating the strike sensibly. He added 99 with Mustard and a further 120 off 109 balls with Chanderpaul, recording his maiden limited-overs fifty in the process.

Surrey’s total of 248 had looked competitive, but would have been many more had Liam Plunkett not removed Alistair Brown (59) and Scott Newman (84) with the last two balls of his eighth over with the score on 175. The pair had added 99 runs off 91 balls for the fourth wicket, at one stage threatening to take the game away from Durham.

Michael Di Venuto edged behind in the first over of the reply but Durham’s other overseas left-hander was as faultless as he had been all summer.