Six-week woe for Plunkett

May 2 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

DURHAM will be without Liam Plunkett for the next six weeks, but the Riversiders will have a decent replacement against Derbyshire today in the England one-day captain.

Paul Collingwood’s release for three Friends Provident Trophy games in quick succession, followed by a Championship meeting with a Lancashire side set to include Andrew Flintoff is well timed.

Graham Onions and Dale Benkenstein are both unavailable for the four-day game and all-rounder Plunkett has succumbed to the side injury which has troubled him since pre-season.

The 23-year-old Teessider is expected to miss Championship matches against Lancashire, Yorkshire, Sussex, Hampshire, plus seven Friends Provident games with a side strain.

“It’s a disappointment all round,” said coach Geoff Cook. “He’s just been getting a little bit of confidence back into his game and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a short absence.

“He found a little bit of a problem when he was abroad on pre-season. The initial scan didn’t show too much, which is why he played against Yorkshire. In retrospect it would have been better if the scan had showed the true extent of the problem first time.”

Collingwood will take Plunkett’s place for today’s floodlit game against Derbyshire, though not without some rejigging of the batting order. “Paul’s an international player who gives us all-round strength and he’s still very popular with the other players,” said Cook. “I think he finds a little bit of pressure to perform when he plays for Durham because his appearances are so infrequent.

“Liam’s an all-rounder for us so Paul will probably replace him in that sense. He’s not as quick or as bouncy a bowler as Liam, but then he contributes more with the bat.”

The early season schedule has not been kind to Durham, who have played just one of the first three rounds of County Championship games. The bad weather which has disrupted the start of the campaign means Durham are not as far behind as they might be, but Cook knows with such an important run of games they need to get into a groove sooner rather than later.

“Out of the three-and-a-half days’ cricket we’ve had so far I think we’ve played well,” he said. “But we’ve got seven really difficult days’ cricket in the next eight days. Three one-day games in four days is pretty hard and it’s doubly hard when you’re trying to find some form. But that’s what we’re here for, so we can’t complain.”

Durham won their opening game in the 50-over competition at home to local rivals Yorkshire, although the five-run margin made the contest look far closer than it was for the most part. Cook was pleased with the display and does not expect many changes beyond that forced by Plunkett’s injury.

Today’s game will start at 1.30pm because of fears over sunlight stopping play. Derby’s pitches face east-west, and day-night matches there are regularly stopped because of low, bright sunlight. The extra hour’s play could come in handy if the current wet weather continues.

Durham travel to Lancashire on Sunday, then play the return against Yorkshire on Bank Holiday Monday before going back to Old Trafford for a four-day encounter.

DURHAM (from): Mustard (wkt), Di Venuto, Coetzer, Collingwood, McKenzie, Benkenstein (capt), B Harmison, Wiseman, Breese, Davies, Killeen, S Harmison, Onions.