MICHAEL Gough's back injury threatens to disrupt the balance of Durham's team for the opening County Championship match against Middlesex at the Riverside on Friday.

With the bat dominating on the first two days of the drawn match against Durham University, Durham would like to include the second spinning option which Gough gives them.

But the injury he suffered in the practice match against Yorkshire last week has not improved and he will not be fit to play for the seconds against the university at the Racecourse ground in Durham City today. Simon Brown will play in that match after recovering from a niggle in his side, and there was a brief scare yesterday when Stephen Harmison limped off after bowling two overs.

"It was just a precaution," said coach Martyn Moxon. "He bruised his knee diving for a catch on Sunday, but he'll be OK.

"We had no injuries at all in South Africa and I'm very happy with our pre-season work. Ideally we would have wanted Gary Pratt and Jimmy Daley to make more runs against the university, but it has been good preparation.

"The students looked much more capable than last year and gave us a good game."

Moxon revealed that because of the quality of Riverside pitches, Durham are leaning towards batting all-rounder Danny Law at six and including an extra bowler.

"The pitches are a lot better than they were a few years ago and we already knew that the bowlers were going to have to work hard for their wickets," he said.

"We need to be aiming to score 400 in the first innings, but if the top five plus Danny and Andrew Pratt can't do that we don't deserve to win.

"We had only played Mark Davies in one-day games before, so it has been an interesting exercise to see him in a first-class game.

"He bowled beautifully on Sunday. He is what you would want from a young cricketer. He continues to work on his batting and he could make a very good all-round cricketer."

It did nothing for the game's reputation yesterday morning when the students batted on for 2.4 overs to gain the three runs they needed to avoid a follow-on which Jon Lewis would surely not have enforced. Durham wanted Daley and Gary Pratt to have another bat as they are probably competing for a place on Friday. They opened the second innings and found that the previously lifeless pitch was now offering some assistance to the seamers as Mark Thorburn, Mark Souter and James Bruce all got balls past the bat.

Pratt was the more fluent in a stand of 33 but on 16 he played back and edged Thorburn to the wicketkeeper.

Nicky Peng moved past Daley in the teens when he hit successive balls from Souter for four. The first was the sort of clump through mid-wicket you might see on a village green, the next was an exquisite square drive on the up - a stroke of the highest class. When the gentle medium pace of Andy Hollingsworth replaced Souter, he troubled Peng when he pitched the ball up but was twice thumped to the boundary when he dropped short.

He was in luck, however, as a miscued pull saw Peng caught low down at mid-wicket for 25.

Daley had made 28 without looking well established when there was a double noise as he ran a ball to third man. If there was any doubt about whether the ball had hit the pad or the bat first it did not exist in the mind of umpire Barry Dudleston, who was quick to give him out lbw.

Hollingsworth nipped one back to rattle Law's stumps and a similar ball had Paul Collingwood lbw before first innings century-maker Jon Lewis contributed two to an unbroken stand of 24 with Andrew Pratt. Lewis declared at 2.30 with Durham on 138 for five, 285 ahead, and they had the scent of victory when Neil Killeen struck in his first two overs.

He had Michael Brown lbw then Will Jefferson shouldered arms and had his off stump rattled, but an innings of 31 from Matt Banes held up Durham and the students finished on 83 for fou.r

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