The Durham innings didn’t start as well as they would have hoped with Vaas striking with the second and sixth delivery, dismissing both the openers, Phil Mustard out lbw and Kyle Coetzer edging the ball to Niall O’Brien behind the stumps.
Andrew Hall found success in the eleventh over after Ben Stokes (15*) edged his second ball to the keeper and the Dynamos found themselves 24-3, with Benkenstein joining Muchall at the crease.
Benkenstein, after establishing a 97 run partnership with Muchall, fell to an impressive one handed catch from Alex Wakely after trying to whack Middlebrook for six and another quick wicket was claimed when Blackwell (9) was trapped lbw two overs later.
Durham were 135-7 after another pair of wickets were picked up in quick succession, Breese (3) bowled and Scott Borthwick (0) caught behind off Willey.
Mark Wood, on his one day debut, was bowled by Middlebrook for 5 and Durham fell to 153-9 once Muchall was caught by Wakely off Hall just as he hit the seventy mark.
The Northants skipper claimed his third wicket, bowling Mitchell Claydon for 9, which left Chris Rushworth unbeaten on 12 and the Dynamos defending 172.
The home side needed to make a quick impact and that they did, with Chris Rushworth bowling Mal Loye in the fourth over and the total at 4.
The seamer struck again in the eighth over of the innings when O’Brien was caught on the boundary by Coetzer leaving Northants 14-2.
Peters and Wakely notched up the runs and their partnership reached 94 before Benkenstein, who had brought himself into the attack, after a number of bowling changes had been made and not picked up a wicket, had Peters (55), whose fifty came off 71 balls and included four boundaries, caught behind off his sixth delivery.
Mitchell Claydon picked up two wickets, bowling both Sales (26) and Hall (2), in the closing stages of the game but it wasn’t enough to de-rail the visitors, who went on to score the winning runs with ten balls to spare.
Highlights of the game will be available online at www.durhamccc.co.uk/durhamtv/highlights from Monday 2 May.