DURHAM will give Jimmy Daley another chance to solve a problem at the top of the batting order in their match at Derby starting today.

Now in his sixth season with the club, skipper Jon Lewis has had nine opening partners in the championship - Mike Roseberry, Paul Collingwood, Stewart Hutton, Michael Gough, John Morris, Jimmy Daley, Nicky Peng, Muazam Ali and Gary Pratt, but has enjoyed only three century opening partnerships.

Unfortunately none were in a winning cause.

The best was 179 with Gough in the second innings of a match against Kent at Stockton in 1999, which Durham lost by five wickets.

There were two in 1999 - 144 with Daley at Old Trafford, after which it was all downhill and Durham lost by an innings, and 130 with Morris, who made 163, in a drawn match against Glamorgan at the Riverside.

Daley has not enjoyed great success as an opener, although he did make 105 against Essex at Colchester three years ago.

As an opener last season he totalled 111 runs in eight innings before dropping down to No 4 and scoring 89 at Hove, which went a long way towards winning the match.

He missed the match at Derby last year, but should have fond memories of making 157 there in 1998.

"The opening slot has not been settled for a couple of years and it would be nice if somebody could grab it," said coach Martyn Moxon.

"Nicky Peng might be a four-day opener in the long-term, but he's still only 19 and I think he's better off playing his natural game at No 5 at the moment.

"I would look a bit silly if I moved him up and he failed."

Neil Killeen and Graeme Bridge take over from injured duo Simon Brown and Nicky Phillips, and Academy boy Glyn Taylor will be doing 12th man duties as the rest of the senior squad are playing for the second team against Yorkshire at the Riverside.

That will not include all-rounder Danny Law, however, as he has not recovered from his back problem and is now a big worry for the Benson & Hedges Cup, in which Durham have five games in eight days starting at Leicester on Monday.

With skipper Dominic Cork missing most of last season, Derbyshire's only victory was against Durham.

But they began the new campaign by beating Glamorgan with Cork among the wickets, while there were runs for South African Andrew Gait.

They again have Tasmanian Michael di Venuto as their overseas player, but Gait is another EU passport holder, like Sven Koenig, Middlesex's century-maker at the Riverside last week.

Durham have already been to Derby this month for a pre-season one-day friendly in which they found themselves 23 for five.

They will need to do considerably better than that, and Lewis would enjoy nothing better than a century opening stand in a winning cause.

Durham: J J B Lewis (capt), J A Daley, M L Love, P D Collingwood, N Peng, G J Muchall, A Pratt, N Killeen, A M Davies, G D Bridge, S J Harmison.

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