DESPITE missing three games through injury, Michael Di Venuto yesterday surged past 1,000 championship runs for Durham. Four division two players got there ahead of him, but only Mark Ramprakash in division one.

The Tasmanian's unbeaten 44 took his match tally to 100 and his total to 1,037 in his 17th innings, helping Durham into a winning position against Surrey before rain wiped out play at lunchtime.

With Mark Stoneman on 26, Durham were 73 without loss in their second innings, 122 runs ahead, and with two days left they will pray that the weather allows them to clinch the win which would leave them only 2.5 points behind leaders Sussex.

A heavy morning shower delayed the start by half an hour and when Surrey resumed on 161 for seven Steve Harmison looked out of sorts in bowling two overs.

Liam Plunkett also looked disgruntled when he was driven through mid-off for four by 18-year-old Chris Jordan, although the Barbadian was merely living up to his reputation as a promising all-rounder.

He also played a delightfully wristy leg glance but quickly ran out of partners as Plunkett struck twice in two balls in the fourth over.

As when he dismissed Ramprakash with the final ball on Monday, he found extra bounce from a good length to take the edge and have Matt Nicholson caught at first slip by Shivnarine Chanderpaul for 32.

The next ball was a beauty, beating Jimmy Ormond's forward grope to take out the middle stump, and as he waddled back to the pavilion Ormond must have been grateful that the match is being played towards the top end of the square.

Harbhajan Singh is no mug to be coming in at No 11 and he competently kept out the hat-trick ball, an attempted yorker.

But when Ottis Gibson replaced Harmison he struck with his eighth ball. The Indian edged a yorker-length delivery outside off stump and, as with his catch to get rid of opener Jon Batty, Phil Mustard flung himself to his right to hold another stunning one-hander.

It was his 50th championship dismissal of a season - he is 13 clear of his nearest rival - and he also pouched eight first-class victims in the match against Durham University. He needs only four more to beat the Durham record for a season, set by Martin Speight in 1998.

Surrey were all out for 183 with Gibson finishing with four for 50, taking his season's tally to 47 with only Mushtaq Ahmed, Andrew Caddick and Danish Kaneria ahead of him.

The Durham openers batted for 17 overs and had few problems following the fall of 20 wickets in 110 overs.

With the injury-prone Ormond struggling through five overs for 26 runs, and Nicholson also proving expensive, the Surrey seam attack looked threadbare with only the inexperienced Jordan and Stewart Walters' occasional medium pace as back-up.

Harbhajan bowled three overs for two runs and could have expected to continue for most of the afternoon had the rain not persisted.

A limited number of tickets are now available for The Friends Provident Trophy Final at Lord's between Durham and Hampshire on Saturday, August 18. They are priced £40 adults, £10 children under 16. Tickets may be bought online via the Lord's ticket website at www.lords.org or by phone direct from the Ticket Office on 020 7432 1000.