LIAM Plunkett is hoping last night's career-best Twenty20 performance will help secure a return to Durham's County Championship starting line-up.

Plunkett posted figures of 5-31 as Durham thrashed Lancashire by 83 runs to increase their chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Friends Life t20.

The Teessider has featured in all of Durham's t20 games so far, but has barely figured in the LV= County Championship, with head coach Geoff Cook preferring the likes of Steve Harmison and Graham Onions instead.

With Durham heading the County Championship table, Plunkett understands Cook's reluctance to tinker with a winning team.

But with the North-Easterners due to resume four-day action at Liverpool on Monday after another t20 meeting with Leicestershire tomorrow, the seamer is hoping his chance in the longer format of the game will come.

"It's nice to have a night like this and help your team-mates out to win a game," said Plunkett, who was representing England in international limited-overs action as recently as February. "It's frustrating because the last Championship game I played was against Yorkshire at Headingley (in April).

"I got a few runs and wickets there, but I got a bit of an injury afterwards and people have come in since and done well. That's frustrating, but we're top of the league and playing some good cricket.

"We have really good depth in the bowling at the moment. We could put out a second team and it would have a really good attack with the likes of myself, Mitch (Claydon) and Mark Davies as well.

"Hopefully, I'll go away to Liverpool next week and get the nudge, but if that doesn't happen I'll keep training hard and keep putting in good performances in Twenty 20 and one-day cricket."

Yesterday's bowling display saw Plunkett take a wicket in each of his four overs, as well as contributing 25 with the bat and claiming a catch off Gareth Breese.

Dale Benkenstein also produced a career-best t20 performance, bludgeoning 60 runs off 34 balls, and Plunkett felt Durham's total of 200-6 forced Lancashire's batsmen into a series of rash shots.

"They had to come out and take a few risks," he said. "Luckily for me, they hit a few of the balls to fielders and that's how I got my wickets.

"To get a score like 200 is quality, and they had to come at us from the word go. They were playing big shots. Sometimes, they come off, but if you get a few early catches and wickets, the pressure on the lower order becomes massive."