Hampshire debutant David Griffiths survived 5.3 tension-packed overs to help the heroic Michael Brown secure a draw against Durham at Chester-le-Street.

After his unbeaten 56 in the first innings, opener Brown finished on 126 out of 262 for nine after Hampshire had been set a target of 359 to win in 75 overs.

The rarity of Ottis Gibson's 10-wicket haul the previous day would have been overshadowed by Brown becoming only the seventh batsman to carry his bat in both innings of a first-class match had Griffiths been out.

But he resisted the New Zealand off-spinner Paul Wiseman, who took five for 65, while Brown's only scare came when he fended a short ball from Gibson just short of gully three overs from the close.

Although Gibson was unable to add to his tally after taking the first two wickets, Durham had reduced Hampshire to 132-5 with 37 overs left at tea.

There were 28 overs remaining when Dimitri Mascarenhas tamely offered a catch to short leg and Brown was joined by Shane Warne, who showed that he had little appetite for blocking it out by lofting Wiseman over long-on for six.

On 15 Warne gave a sharp chance to Ben Harmison at first slip off Liam Plunkett and he survived a few other streaky moments in reaching 50 off 63 balls.

But with 11 overs left his skied sweep off the next ball was well held at deep square leg, where Mark Stoneman made ground to set up the dramatic finish.

Shaun Udal survived for six overs before he and James Bruce fell to bat-pad catches off successive balls, giving Bruce a king pair.

But left-hander Griffiths was not unduly troubled and, apart from his one scare, Brown dealt comfortably with Gibson's blend of guile and hostility.

Brown reached his third hundred of the season off 159 balls by cutting Graham Onions for his 13th four and in all he faced 209 deliveries.

Durham added 107 for the loss of three wickets in 75 minutes in the morning before Phil Mustard's unbeaten 35 off 16 balls hastened the declaration on 221 for five.

The swashbuckling left-hander drove two sixes in three balls off Warne and also reverse-swept the leg-spinning legend to the boundary before driving his biggest six off Griffiths.

Following his four wickets in the first innings, Griffiths claimed two more as he bowled Kyle Coetzer and Scott Styris, who missed a slower ball after making 17, taking his final tally to 210 runs from 10 championship innings.