CARL Hooper will make his Lancashire comeback in Friday's Twenty20 Cup tie against Durham at Riverside.

Championship favourites at the start of the season, the Red Rose men have lost eight of their last ten games in all competitions after a debilitating run of injuries.

Hooper first suffered his thumb injury on May 29 in the C & G Trophy third round win at Hove against Sussex, who beat Durham in the previous round.

The former West Indies captain attempted a comeback in the quarter-final against Yorkshire but was hit again on the same thumb and has not played since.

The Lancashire pace attack has also been hit by injuries to Glen Chapple, Peter Martin and Kyle Hogg, while James Anderson and Sajid Mahmood are in the England one-day squad.

Anderson and Mahmood could also return, along with Durham's Paul Collingwood, for Friday's sell-out match if England fail to reach Saturday's NatWest Series final.

Durham's match against Sri Lanka A at Riverside yesterday was badly disrupted by rain, being reduced from 50 to 32 overs a side after the fifth and most prolonged break.

The tourists were on 153 for three after 26.2 overs at the time and finished on 210 for five. Because Durham knew from the start of their innings that they had only 32 overs their revised victory target was 237.

At 71 for one in the ninth over they were ahead of the clock on a sunny evening, but then three wickets went down on the same total and the challenge fizzled out as they were all out for 199 with 20 balls left.

Gary Pratt continued his excellent one-day form before he was last out for 89, but the rate was up to ten an over with four wickets left by the time he really cut loose, moving from 30 to 58 in two overs.

Durham's Twenty20 opener Andrew Pratt pulled a four and a six off Ranga Dias in the second over. But the same bowler then bowled Jon Lewis through an attempted drive.

Phil Mustard then thrashed 36 off 24 balls, flat-batting one of his two sixes over extra cover. He was bowled off the last ball of the ninth over making room to hit left-arm spinner Saman Jayantha through the off side and the momentum vanished.

The lively bowling of Dammika Prasad typified the tourists' enthusiasm and he forced Andrew Pratt to play on before yorking Gordon Muchall.

Gary Pratt reached 50 off 48 balls with four fours and a straight six, but he was fighting a lone battle as no-one stayed with him for long.

The target was 50 off four overs when he hit off-spinner Bathiya Perera for four, two, six before skying the next ball to backward point.

The sparse crowd was initially treated to some glorious strokeplay from Jayantha and Avishka Gunawardene, who were off to a cracking start against Durham's rookie opening attack of Chris Rushworth and Pallav Kumar.

They had 30 on the board after three overs but Rushworth settled down after his nervous opening over and bowled very straight.

The same could not be said for Kumar or Ian Pattison, who sent down 16 wides between them in a disappointing display which underlined Durham's lack of back-up bowling.

The two Sri Lankan openers are the senior members of the 16-man squad and Gunawardene, a 27-year-old left-hander, has played in four Tests and 45 one-day internationals.

Skipper Jehan Mubarak is the only other member of yesterday's line-up who has Test experience but Jayantha and several others have played in one-day internationals.

Tour manager Michael Tissera said: "We are trying to prepare these players to push those in the Test team for their places. We really need to develop our reserve strength.

"The middle order in the first team has not been performing all that well, so they need competition from some of these players.

"There are four or five in this party who we feel with the correct guidance will make the senior side in the next 18 months.

"We have seven one-day games and three first-class matches at the end of the tour. It would have been nice to have had a few longer matches but we understand that the counties have busy programmes.

"Quite often they don't field full-strength sides against full touring teams, so we can't expect them to do it against us.

"But it's all good experience for our players. They have to get used to playing in all conditions and making maximum use of every opportunity they get."

Gunawardene, tall and elegant, was always prepared to take the aerial route through the off side, starting with a cut for six over the short boundary in Rushworth's first over.

He drove the same bowler over long-off and also hit seven fours in his 51-ball half century before he lost concentration and tried to cut a straight ball from Kumar, which he edged to Andrew Pratt.

It was unusual that all three sixes in an opening stand of 54 were hit to the off side, with Jayantha smashing a long hop from Mark Davies over cover.

He fell for 20 in the same over when he drove at a ball which nipped into him and rattled off and middle stumps.

Left-hander Mubarak looked surprised to be adjudged lbw when trying to sweep Graeme Bridge and Sri Lanka were on 153 for three in the 27th over when the fifth and most prolonged break left them with only 5.4 overs to bat.

Ian Daniel, who had showed why he is rated one of the brighter prospects, went down the pitch to Bridge on the resumption and was stumped for 42.

But with Pattison bowling at the other end the score raced along. He went round the wicket in the middle of his final over and the next two balls were smashed over long-on for six.

The all-rounder finished with none for 60 in six overs