DEBUTS are rarely more dream-like than the one enjoyed by Durham's new captain Mike Hussey yesterday.

He won the toss at Grace Road, pulled the first ball of the match against Leicestershire for four and was still there on 165 at the close as his side took full advantage of kind weather, a benign pitch and friendly bowling to reach 324 for three.

It was the best start to a season since they made 625 for six against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1994, when Mark Saxelby and Jon Longley were the last players to make championship debut centuries for Durham.

Hussey twice pulled David Masters for six in reaching his century off 187 balls, otherwise his innings reflected his demand for patient, dedicated graft as he allowed Gordon Muchall to dominate the scoring against a flagging attack in the last hour.

Taking up where he left off with his century at Scarborough last season, Muchall was in full cry on 82 when he called Hussey back for a second to long leg and failed to beat Ottis Gibson's throw.

West Indian Gibson was the only bowler to trouble Hussey during an afternoon spell when he passed the left-hander's outside edge several times as the ball began to swing under increased cloud cover.

Hussey remained totally unruffled, the closest he came to a misjudgement coming on 94, when he shaped to sweep left-arm spinner Claude Henderson from outside off stump, pulled out of the shot at the last second and was almost bowled.

Shortly afterwards he square drove Darren Maddy for his 14th four to reach three figures, raised his bat in jubilation then settled down to indulge himself further.

He made a triple century in each of his three seasons with Northamptonshire and will no doubt have his sights on becoming the first to score one for Durham today, weather permitting.

Gibson had a big shout for lbw turned down when Hussey offered no shot on 125, but Henderson was the only other bowler to give him the slightest concern.

There was also a half-century for Jon Lewis, but Paul Collingwood's efforts to push his Test claims by coming in at No 3 backfired when he fell for 18, edging a drive at the deserving Gibson to second slip.

Gibson switched ends after struggling up the hill on a pleasant morning when he and Phil DeFreitas formed what must be the oldest opening attack in county cricket, with a combined age of 75.

After Gibson's opening long hop was swatted away by Hussey there were more geriatric offerings, with DeFreitas looking as though he is carrying on a season too far.

England selector Geoff Miller, in attendance to watch Collingwood and Steve Harmison, observed: "Watching DeFreitas and Gibson bowling to Hussey isn't going to keep me interested for very long."

Lewis cut and cover drove fours off Gibson in the fifth over to take the total to 27, but the scoring rate settled down after that.

Hussey was generally ahead until Lewis straight drove the first ball of DeFreitas' second spell for four to go past his successor as captain on 38.

Hussey had added only one more before Lewis followed a thick edge for four off Maddy with a sweet clip to mid-wicket off the next ball to reach 50 off 101 balls with his seventh four.

The opening stand was worth 93, which was 28 more than Durham's best for the first wicket in the championship last season, achieved at Cardiff. The only other time they passed 50 was at Colchester.

Lewis pushed forward to the next ball after reaching 50 and edged low to wicketkeeper Paul Nixon, Collingwood completing an eventful over by off-driving his second ball to the boundary.

A perfectly-timed clip to the mid-wicket boundary was Collingwood's best stroke, but he knows he has to convert good starts into big scores if he is to have any chance of a Test future.

Muchall, Durham's leading four-day batsman last season, looked composed from the start. He edged Gibson just short of first slip on 32 but was otherwise untroubled, the highlights of his innings being a couple of ferocious pulls in front of mid-wicket.

The new ball was taken with the total on 269 after 90 overs, but other than Hussey edging Masters just short of slip on 148, it served only to accelerate Muchall's scoring rate.

There were only four fours in his 104-ball 50 but he had hammered five more before his unfortunate dismissal.

Durham's other debutant, South African Dale Benkenstein, joined Hussey for the last 20 minutes and was content to play out time in the hope of helping his captain add substantially to the total today.

* Durham have signed Victoria opening bowler Michael Lewis to replace the injured Queenslander Ashley Noffke and he will arrive at Riverside today.

Lewis, who had a brief spell with Glamorgan last season, will be available for Sunday's opening totesport League match against Leicestershire at Grace Road.

Noffke has a back problem and is expected to be fit around May 20.

* Three Durham Academy members are in the England Under-19 squad for a week's training at Loughborough.

They are Durham-born all-rounder Luke Anderson, Rotherham-born off-spinning all-rounder Paul Cummins and Newcastle-born left-hand bat Mark Stoneman.