Hussey desperate to win top-of-table battle

Both of last year's clashes were disappointingly one-sided, the surprise being that the second was a reversal of the first as the visiting off-spinner held sway in both cases.

Yorkshire won by 320 runs at Riverside in June, with Richard Dawson taking nine wickets in the match, while Gareth Breese had match figures of one for 152.

Yet at Scarborough in September, Durham won by 210 runs with Breese taking ten wickets while Dawson had four for 207.

Just as his 165 not out at Taunton a year ago was Breese's finest hour with the bat, his ten-wicket haul at Scarborough was comfortably his best with the ball.

While winning their first four championship games this season, Durham have yet to take a wicket with spin and they will again expect their successful seam attack to make Yorkshire work hard for their runs.

The absence of Steve Harmison merely means there is room to recall Mark Davies after he was rested at Old Trafford last week, when he was top of the national averages.

"It's been hard to leave him out, but that's a good problem to have," said Durham skipper Mike Hussey, who is desperate to win before departing to join the Australian one-day squad for six weeks.

"It's a massive game," he said. "Yorkshire are a very good team who will fancy themselves as title contenders. Both teams are playing well and it should be great spectacle for the fans.

"It looks like a typical Riverside pitch. It might turn a bit and it should offer all the bowlers some assistance."

Hussey faces a personal duel with fellow Aussie Phil Jaques, with whom he shared four big stands for Northamptonshire against Durham two years ago.

At Riverside they put on 92 and 156, Jaques scoring 109 and 81, then at Northampton they added 268 for the second wicket in an innings win, then enjoyed a stand of 84 in the National League match.

Durham got off quite lightly against Jaques last season as he made three half-centuries in four championship innings against them but failed to progress beyond 66.

Queensland seamer Ashley Noffke practised with the full Durham squad yesterday and Hussey said: "He trained well and can't wait to get going. Hopefully he will play against the university next week."

Chris Silverwood will return for Yorkshire. The 30-year-old fast bowler, who has been brushing up his pace in the second team, replaces Matthew Hoggard, while left-hander Michael Lumb comes in for England captain Michael Vaughan.

Silverwood trained hard last winter after his operation on a damaged ankle which had bothered him for a couple of seasons, and he was included in Yorkshire's team for the first Championship match against Essex at Chelmsford.

But he was still some way short of top pace and he failed to claim a wicket in 21 overs, which cost him 72 runs.

Director of Cricket, David Byas, decided that Silverwood should concentrate on building up his pace in the seconds so he would be sharper by the time Hoggard left to join up with England.

"He is probably not back to full speed yet but he has done everything that was asked of him and I have received good reports from Richard Blakey about his work in the second XI," said Byas.

"Chris fully deserves to be back in the first team and I feel sure that he and Deon Kruis can be a very effective pair together."

Byas conceded that Durham were the better side in their 51-run win in the totesport League at Riverside last Sunday.

But he is confident that Yorkshire can still maintain their unbeaten record in the Championship. "Durham are a much tougher side this season, but so are we and we owe them one for last Sunday as well as for the Championship defeat at Scarborough last September," said Byas.

Durham: M E K Hussey (capt), J J B Lewis, P D Collingwood, G J Muchall, D M Benkenstein, N Peng, G R Breese, P Mustard, L E Plunkett, M Davies, M L Lewis.

Yorkshire: M Wood, P Jaques, A McGrath, M Lumb, I Harvey, C White, I Dawood, R Dawson, C Silverwood, T Bresnan, D Kruis.