PAUL Collingwood continued to press his claims for a place in the England team for the second Test when he became the first Durham player to score two hundreds in a championship match yesterday.

With the England squad for Edgbaston due to be announced tomorrow, Collingwood's 73-ball century against Somerset at Taunton was the fastest in first-class cricket for Durham.

It beat Wayne Larkins' 88-ball effort against Sussex at Durham University in 1993 and was only one ball slower than the fastest this season, by Shane Warne for Hampshire against Kent at Canterbury in May.

Following his 181 in the first innings at Taunton, Collingwood resumed on six not out, scored off 16 balls on Thursday evening, and needed only a further 57 balls to complete his century.

It was his fifth championship century of the season, another Durham record, and he missed four matches through England one-day duty, during which he became the first player in one-day international history to score a hundred and take six wickets in the same match, against Bangladesh.

At 29, Collingwood has played in two Tests, late in 2003 in Sri Lanka. He played at Galle as a late replacement for Nasser Hussain, who was ill, and was retained at Kandy, averaging 22 in his four innings and doing well to survive for a long time against Muttiah Muralitharan.

He has since rarely been out of the squad, being preferred to Ian Bell in South Africa last winter, but has never been in the team.

Durham coach Martyn Moxon said: "I'm not sure whether we are going to lose Paul to the England team next week. If he is going to play in a Test he couldn't have a better time to do it because he's in tremendous form.

"If they pick him in the squad and decide not to put him in the team I just hope they release him in time for our match at Southend on Wednesday."

Collingwood has scored four centuries in his last three championship matches, starting with 103 not out at Worcester in early June in his last match before the one-day internationals.

On his return he equalled his career-best 190 at Derby and in his last five championship innings, which include two not outs, he has scored 591 runs at an average of 197.

He said: "Nothing has been said to me by the selectors. Obviously I hope I'm in the team, but if I were picking it I probably wouldn't be.

"I don't see why they should change the team after one bad game when they have played well for two years.

"My turn will come. It's going really well for me and I'm improving all the time.

"It was really nice to spend time with Durham at the start of the season because I haven't played a lot of four-day cricket in recent years.

"It's good to be part of such a good team. We've always had good players but we haven't really been a good team.

"Everybody is sticking his hand up now and contributing.

"I'm learning my own game mentally and it helps that my last four hundreds have been on good pitches.

"I worked on a slight change in my footwork during the Leicester game at the start of the season because I felt I was coming across the ball a bit and not getting into it as I wanted to.

"It comes down to yourself to sort it out if you know what standard you want to get to.

"I'm feeling very relaxed at the crease. I'm relaxed with my technique and approach to the game."