MIKE Hussey's hopes of securing promotion before he leaves Durham at the end of the month look like being frustrated by the weather in the current game against Leicestershire at Riverside.

Hussey survived a searching test from South African left-armer Charl Willoughby in the 90 minutes of play which was possible yesterday, but with bad weather forecast for today he will be short of time in which to achieve the record seventh win of the season.

Following his 253 at Grace Road in the opening match of the season, Hussey chose to bat when play began at 4.30 and shared a stand of 44 with his new opening partner, James Lowe, who made 26.

Hussey took the brunt of some impressive bowling from Willoughby, who did not arrive in time for the Grace Road encounter.

The captain was unbeaten on 16 when bad light ended play at 6pm with the Durham total on 54 for one after 22 overs.

Opponents are still not alive to Hussey's habit of pushing a quick single to get off the mark, but after he did it off the third ball of the innings off Ottis Gibson there was no further run until the fifth ball of the sixth over.

Lowe, 22, took 20 balls to get off the mark and was then made to scamper by his sprightly partner, who turned what would normally have been three for a push wide of mid-on into an all-run four.

The first boundary came in the tenth over, when Hussey steered Willoughby to third man, but he was almost bowled when shouldering arms in the same over.

There were several similar examples of excellent judgement, plus an edge which fell just short of first slip before the first authentic boundary came with Hussey's cover drive off Willoughby in the 13th over.

Lowe then moved ahead of him, following an edged four off Gibson with a sweetly-timed clip to the mid-wicket boundary.

When Darren Maddy replaced Gibson for the 15th over Lowe drove the medium pacer's first ball through extra cover for four and was looking very composed until he shaped to play Willoughby through mid-wicket and fell lbw.

Paul Collingwood was beaten by the next ball, but two balls later he was off the mark with an on-driven four then pulled Willoughby's next ball for six.

Both were the strokes of a player in supreme form, but after Willoughby was replaced by David Masters there was time for only one over before the light became too bad to continue.

Hussey has only one championship match after this, the key game against Yorkshire at Scarborough, before departing for Australia A's tour to Pakistan.

News of his call-up for a tour dominated by one-day games came as a shock to Durham as Hussey has already proved his one-day credentials in the senior Australia side, averaging 129 in ten innings.

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