WITH one championship game left before departing for the Australia A tour to Pakistan, Mike Hussey again underlined his importance to Durham by making 146 out of 315 against Leicestershire at Riverside yesterday.

He began the season by making 253 out of 523 for eight against the same opponents, while his other century, an unbeaten 144, came out of 338 at Old Trafford.

His latest effort, spanning three days of a rain-ruined match, left him needing 79 to reach 1,000 championship runs. He may get the chance to add a few more today, otherwise he will surely complete the task at run-laden Scarborough next week.

Durham will be short of an experienced opening batsman after that. They are still hoping Nathan Astle will return and he will probably have to do the job, although his two attempts at it earlier in the season were not a huge success.

It could be a worry for Durham if they still need to win one of their two remaining games to secure promotion, although the fact that the first is at home to Derbyshire should help.

As Leicestershire replied with 217 for three yesterday, it looks as if ten points is the best Durham can hope for from this match on the final day today.

There was some excellent bowling from Liam Plunkett, who was unlucky not to take more than two wickets. But the reason for playing both Graham Onions and Australian Callum Thorp remained a mystery unless it was to decide which is the better prospect.

Thorp swung his first ball on his championship debut to beat left-hander John Maunders and also shaped some deliveries nicely away from the right-handers. He also looked unlucky not to have Darren Robinson lbw on 43, but there was also an over which went for 13 runs before Paul Collingwood came on as the fifth seamer.

When Collingwood departed for a very good 39 to the last ball before lunch during Saturday's two hours of play Hussey was on 31 out of 99 for two.

But he made 115 of the next 170 runs, hitting five sixes and 15 fours in his superb six-hour innings.

Most of his sixes were pulled, but on 108 he went down the pitch and lifted left-arm spinner Claude Henderson high over long-on.

Looking to press on at this point following the loss of a day and a half, Hussey was finally sixth out as the last seven wickets went down for 55. This resulted from a combination of good new ball bowling and the desire for quick runs.

The pick of the bowlers was David Masters, who in an otherwise stuttering career took six wickets against Durham for the second time.

His career-best remains the six for 27 he took for Kent in the two-day win on a rain-affected pitch at Tunbridge Wells in 2000.

But his six for 74 yesterday was his best for Leicestershire since joining them for the 2003 season.

Masters came on for the tenth over of the day after play began at 12.15 on Saturday and saw his first ball pulled for six by Collingwood, who took 11 off the over.

But after having a good appeal for lbw against Collingwood turned down he seemed to gain a yard of pace and a couple of excellent overs were rewarded when he had the England one-day man caught at first slip.

He also had Gordon Muchall lbw before half an hour's torrential rain at 3pm prompted a 4pm abandonment, despite clear blue skies by that stage.

Hussey resumed on 70 yesterday and after a sedate start Leicestershire made things easier for him by introducing Maunders' occasional medium pace.

On 88 Hussey pulled him for six, then advanced to 98 with a cover-driven four as 13 came off Maunders' next over.

A similar stroke in Henderson's first over completed the century off 238 balls as Hussey dominated the fourth wicket stand of 129.

Dale Benkenstein grafted to 41 off 124 balls but failed to capitalise on being dropped at slip by Darren Maddy off Henderson as he fell to a good ball from Masters in identical fashion to Collingwood.

That was in the first over of the new ball and in the next over Gareth Breese was lbw to left-armer Charl Willoughby for a duck. The ball seemed to skid on to him on a pitch offering more even bounce than usual.

Hussey was next to go, lbw when well forward looking to work Masters to leg, and with Phil Mustard surprisingly restrained the required momentum was lacking.

Plunkett edged Willoughby to slip, but four leg byes brought up the third batting point at 300 before Mustard began to go for it.

Mick Lewis slogged Willoughby for a straight six to get off the mark, but Mustard connected only once with several swipes at Masters, swinging him over the short leg-side boundary for six.

He was then caught in two minds by a good ball and was bowled for 17 before Onions drove the next ball straight into extra cover's hands.

Robinson and Maddy made a flying start for Leicestershire, reaching 34 with the help of 11 extras before Maddy was bowled by Plunkett in the fourth over.

It was 50 for one after seven overs when Onions replaced Plunkett, who was at his best in an eight-over spell of sustained pace and accuracy after tea.

Robinson, on 42 at the break, added only eight in the next 13 overs after losing Maunders lbw immediately after the resumption.

Indian left-hander Dinesh Mongia intially struggled against Plunkett but then began to stroke Thorpe away off the front foot.

When Lewis returned seven overs before the 7pm close Mongia hooked two attempted bouncers for four to complete his 50.

Lewis then shot one through to bowl Robinson for 73, but Mongia remained unbeaten on 77, his best score for Leicestershire.

Read more about Durham here.