A tense and ultimately rousing run pursuit by Hampshire, with the former Zimbabwe Test batsman Sean Ervine in the hero's role, has transformed their season and administered a severe but not necessarily fatal blow to Durham's dreams of a first LV County Championship title. Their two-wicket win, secured with a push through the covers by Imran Tahir 11 overs after lunch on the third day, has resounded well beyond this intimate club ground where Robin Smith scored six centuries and Andy Roberts once knocked a helmetless Colin Cowdrey unconscious with his “quicker” bouncer.

A number of other counties hoping either to be champions or to avoid relegation to the second division are affected by the ripples of a result that could neither have been expected nor ruled out when play started yesterday with Hampshire still needing 132 from their last five wickets. They would be safe if they beat Surrey at the Brit Oval next week, when Chris Tremlett will certainly be fit and John Crawley and Michael Brown probably so.

Durham will surely have to win at least two of their remaining games, at home to Lancashire and Sussex and away to Somerset and Kent, to be confident of winning the title for the first time. Their luck ran out yesterday as balls still seamed or turned past the edge and two catches were put down. Geoff Cook, the Durham director of cricket and first-team coach, ascribed defeat to a fine innings by Ervine and Durham's “disappointing” second innings batting.

“They've got the sign on us this year,” he said of Hampshire's two narrow wins this season, the first of them by only four runs at the Riverside. Dimitri Mascerenhas, whose team has found some form just in time, described this second success as an intense relief. “It's definitely the best I've ever been involved in,” he said. Every run was applauded by an excited collection of North Hampshire supporters on a warm morning on which they lost only one wicket.

Ervine rode some luck but batted with gumption and determination on an easing pitch to make his highest first-class score of the season. Most of his 14 fours were either driven through extra or clipped firmly off his legs. With two valuable partners he added 94 and 38 for the sixth and seventh wickets.

The genuinely promising 18-year-old Liam Dawson got well forward to the quick bowlers, left the ball better than some of his senior colleagues and occasionally played cleanly through extra cover off the back foot. Mark Davies and, in particular, Graham Onions, beat both Ervine several times and edges flew short or wide Onions had him caught behind off a no-ball as well as seeing Shivnarine Chanderpaul drop a straightforward edge at first slip in his second over when Dawson had made 19.

Having reached his highest first-class score, Dawson danced out to Paul Wiseman's belatedly introduced off spin and glanced straight into Dale Benkenstein's hands at leg slip, but by then the worm had turned. Mascerenhas followed his attacking instincts both before and after he was dropped by Callum Thorp off Wiseman at deep, wide mid-on. Davies bowled him after lunch with a ball that darted away off the seam and followed with his eleventh wicket of the game but Ervine, who put his innings down to a new bat and the confidence that came from signing a new two-year contract last week, survived some more playing and missing to win the day.

The pitch seamed a little too much for a fair balance perhaps, but May's Bounty is unlikely to wait another eight years for a fixture.

Durham: First Innings 156 (W R Smith 70; A D Mascarenhas 5 for 46)

Second Innings 179 (J A Tomlinson 5 for 62, Imran Tahir 4 for 53)

Hampshire: First Innings 96 (M Davies 8 for 24)

Second Innings (overnight 108-5)

M A Carberry c Mustard b Davies 15

J H K Adams lbw b Thorp 8

M J Lumb lbw b Thorp 9

C C Benham c Mustard b Thorp 16

S M Ervine not out 94

N Pothas c Plunkett b Wiseman 14

L A Dawson c Benkenstein b Wiseman 28

*A D Mascarenhas b Davies 26

D J Balcombe c Di Venuto b Davies 6

Imran Tahir not out 8

Extras (b 6, lb 5, w 1, nb 4) 16

Total (8 wkts, 73.4 overs) 240

Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-34, 3-34, 4-53, 5-77, 6-171, 7-209, 8-219.

Bowling: Onions 10.4-1-52-0; Thorp 15-3-35-3; Davies 20-4-51-3; Wiseman 17-4-38-2; Plunkett 7-0-40-0; Benkenstein 4-0-13-0.

Umpires: R J Bailey and S A Garratt.