WHEN England named their one-day and Twenty20 squads earlier this week, the omission of Paul Collingwood hogged the headlines.

On the evidence of last night's comprehensive t20 victory over Lancashire, however, it is another Durham player who can consider himself unlucky to have been ignored.

Liam Plunkett recorded best-ever t20 figures of 5-31 as Durham secured an 83-run success that saw them leapfrog their opponents in the northern section and greatly enhance their chances of making the competition's last eight.

To complete a memorable evening, Plunkett also chipped in with a useful 27 runs off 15 balls at the death of the Durham innings. Not exactly a bad nudge in the selectors' direction from a player who was representing England in Australia as recently as February.

All too often in this season's t20, Durham have paid a heavy price for relying on a pace attack, but having posted an imposing target of 201, thanks to a career-best batting effort from Dale Benkenstein, the North-Easterners were able to watch Plunkett profit from Lancashire's need to score quick runs from the outset.

Displaying the kind of control that has not always been his forte, the Teessider gradually ratcheted up the pressure and lured the Lancashire top order into a series of ever-more risky shots.

Stephen Moore was his first victim, clubbing a catch to Chris Rushworth at long on, before David Miller produced an excellent diving catch at point to remove Stephen Croft.

Karl Brown's first-ball dismissal was the product of some excellent seam bowling - the 23-year-old edged Plunkett to Phil Mustard behind the stumps - and both Gareth Cross and Jordan Clark perished as they chased shots that were not really on.

The fact that all five wickets were catches suggests a degree of culpability on the part of the batsmen, but that should not detract from the quality of Plunkett's spell.

At 65-6, the game was effectively over before the halfway stage of Lancashire's reply, and as if to underline the importance of his individual efforts, Plunkett ran around from long on to take the catch that accounted for Farveez Maharoof after the Lancashire all-rounder's hitting briefly threatened to make a game of things.

Gareth Breese was the bowler on that occasion, and the medium-pacer claimed three wickets of his own before Lancashire's resistance was ended when Gary Keedy lobbed to Benkenstein to give Ian Blackwell his first wicket of the night.

As if the victory margin of 83 runs was not emphatic enough, Durham also dismissed their opponents with a full three overs to spare, such was the extent of their superiority.

In fairness, their batting has been up to scratch for the majority of this year's Twenty20, and put in first under leaden skies, Durham reached 200 for only the third time in this form of the game.

It was a tale of two captains, with former limited-overs skipper Mustard generating momentum at the top of the order with a measured 36, before current captain Benkenstein accelerated things late on as he cracked his highest t20 score before perishing in the 18th over.

Mustard appears to have benefited from the decision to strip him of the captaincy in 40-over and t20 cricket, with an increased freedom to go for his shots resulting in an increased clarity of purpose.

Successive boundaries off Luke Procter in the third over of the game underlined the ferocity of the North-Easterner's hitting, although the majority of his runs were a result of intelligent positioning rather than raw power.

He was completely untroubled until he departed unexpectedly, scooping a catch to Procter at deep midwicket as he attempted to flick left-arm spinner Stephen Parry off his legs.

Mustard was the fourth Durham batsman to exit, with the score at 103 for four in the 12th over when he fell.

Jimmy Anderson's first ball of the evening accounted for Gordon Muchall, with the opener pulling straight into the hands of Tom Smith at deep square leg, while Blackwell made 19 before chopping a wide one from Maharoof to Croft at point.

Blackwell signed a two-year contract extension yesterday afternoon, and was soon joined in the dug out by Miller, whose disappointing t20 campaign continued when he lobbed a gentle return catch to Parry.

Mustard was accompanied by Benkenstein when he departed, and the current t20 skipper took over where his predecessor had left off, hammering eight boundaries that included a wonderful straight six off Procter on his way to amassing 60 from just 34 balls.

Breese came and went for 14 - although not before he had mimicked Tillakaratne Dilshan by scooping the ball straight over wicketkeeper Cross' head - and Benkenstein was just getting ready to lead a late charge when he became Anderson's second victim.

However, Anderson cannot have been happy with his night's work, as his four overs cost a mammoth 54 runs.

His final six balls alone went for 25, with Plunkett in particular opening his shoulders and finding gaps all over the field.