Durham eye Championship glory

10:52am Wednesday 24th September 2008

DURHAM have grown used to final match drama since their elevation to the top flight and they can always count on skipper Dale Benkenstein to rise to the challenge.

In case the match at Canterbury does prove to be his final one as captain, he will want to bow out on a massive high by leading Durham to the title for the first time.

But with his team in third place he knows all he can do is go for victory and hope Nottinghamshire and Somerset both slip up.

As both are at home - to Hampshire and Lancashire - the odds are against Durham clinching the top spot which has been close to their grasp all season.

But if they fail it won't be for want of trying on the part of Benkenstein, who scored 151 at Headingley to ensure survival in the final match two years ago and 117 in the win at Canterbury last year.

As that victory was clinched in three days it left Durham top for 24 hours before Sussex overtook them for their third title in four years.

Kent went into the equivalent match last season safely ensconced in mid-table, but this time they sit alongside Sussex, four points ahead of Yorkshire, who occupy the second relegation spot.

So Robert Key's men will be fighting tooth and nail to hang on to Kent's record of being the only ever-present team in the top flight since the championship was split into two divisions in 2000.

Despite being beaten finalists in both the Friends Provident Trophy and the Twenty20 Cup, their coach, Graham Ford, has described this as the biggest match of the season.

Durham have won on their last two visits to Canterbury, although in 2006 it was the first match of the season and much has changed since then.

The game is remembered for Gordon Muchall's 219, but only three of the team are in today's squad - Benkenstein, Gareth Breese and Phil Mustard.

Steve Harmison's only previous championship appearance at Canterbury was in 1998, when he went in with Durham on 127 for nine and contributed 36 to a stand of 102 with Michael Foster.

It was also the match in which Key scored his maiden century before Harmison bowled him. They were subsequently in the first National Academy intake and have been firm friends since.

Whether Kent can follow Somerset's example two weeks ago in preparing a pitch to blunt Harmison's threat remains to be seen.

Somerset's spinners weren't good enough to exploit the dry, bare surface and Kent are not well blessed in that department with only James Tredwell to call upon, plus the occasional off-spin of Martin van Jaarsveld.

Durham (from): D M Benkenstein (capt), M J Di Venuto, B W Harmison, W R Smith, S Chanderpaul, G R Breese, P Mustard, P J Wiseman, C D Thorp, S J Harmison, M Davies, M D Stoneman, L E Plunkett.

Eating Out