SHOAIB Akhtar has yet to taste defeat with Durham this season and they will be looking for the Pakistani to repeat last season's effort against Yorkshire at Riverside in the four-day match starting today.

After losing to Durham for the first time in 11 championship meetings at Headingley on June 1, Yorkshire led by 121 runs in the first innings in the return fixture in July.

But Shoaib then took three wickets in 11 balls early in the second innings and after Yorkshire were dismissed for 129 Durham went on to win by three wickets.

Although his bowling was clearly below par as he had not fully recovered from his rib injury, Shoaib's only championship appearance this season coincided with Durham's one win in seven games at Taunton.

He has also featured in their three successive one-day wins, but while Durham have climbed to second place in division two of the totesport League, they have slipped to next to the bottom in the championship after missing the last round of matches.

Yorkshire are six points ahead of them in fifth place after completing the double against Essex and still have two games in hand.

Shoaib felt no pain from his ribs during his nine overs against Scotland on Sunday, but was still feeling the effects of the virus which laid him low last week.

Durham will need to check on him this morning and have Graham Onions standing by, while Graeme Bridge and Ian Pattison are also in the squad. But they expect to field the same team as on Sunday. Durham are looking light on spin, with Gareth Breese's nine championship wickets costing 57 apiece, but there are no immediate plans to bring back Bridge after his injury.

"The pitch looks similar to the one for the last home championship game against Glamorgan, when the seamers dominated," said coach Martyn Moxon.

"We will have a chat in the morning about how to bowl at Phil Jaques, but we really just have to do the basics well. We hope Shoaib can knock him over early, otherwise we just have to be consistent with our lines and lengths."

Jaques scored 109 and 81 for Northamptonshire at Riverside last season and followed up with 147 in the innings defeat at Northampton, plus 67 in the National League clash there.

Gavin Hamilton, who would have been keen to prove that Yorkshire were wrong to release him, will have a lightweight splint on his thumb for several more weeks and is unlikely to return before the end of July.

Yorkshire arrive at Riverside today full of confidence from their 137 run win against Essex at Chelmsford last week and determined to make Durham pay a heavy price for completing the double over them last year.

Director of cricket, David Byas, said: "It was a fine victory over Essex and it has rejuvenated us after losing our two previous Championship matches at Headingley. We had a work plan at Chelmsford which we executed well and we will try to show similar discipline against Durham.

"The only thing we need to try and improve is our catching because one or two half-chances went down and we want to stop that." Yorkshire, who had nets at Riverside yesterday, will choose from the same 12 with leg-spinner Mark Lawson again waiting to see if he is to make his first team debut. In the corresponding game last year, Yorkshire were in a winning position until Akhtar blasted them away in the second innings with one of the most hostile pieces of bowling they came up against all season.

Yorkshire will now be keeping a wary eye on the Rawalpindi Express but they have firepower of their own in Chris Silverwood and Steve Kirby who both came back from injury well against Essex.

In addition, young Tim Bresnan was only used for six overs in that game and he can be expected to make a bigger contribution.

Durham: J J B Lewis (capt), M J North, G J Muchall, P D Collingwood, G J Pratt, N Peng, G R Breese, A Pratt, Shoaib Akhtar, N Killeen, M Davies.

Yorkshire (from): Wood, Jaques, Kirby, McGrath, Lehmann, Lumb, White, Guy, Dawson, Bresnan, Silverwood, Lawson.