STEVE Harmison's injury may have one benefit for Durham as it has allowed Chris Tremlett to make his England debut and miss Hampshire's visit to Riverside, starting today.

Other than Shane Warne, with match figures of 11-133, Tremlett was Hampshire's only significant contributor when they beat Durham by 50 runs at the Rose Bowl last month.

Apart from scoring a crucial 62 not out in the second innings, the 6ft 7in seamer took seven wickets in the match, including the last three in one over when Durham still had an outside chance of victory.

That began Durham's run of three defeats, from which they have taken 12 points, and it's a slump they desperately need to halt.

Although they are 5.5 points ahead of their visitors, Hampshire have a game in hand and have lost only once. They trail Durham only because their batting points total of 13 is the lowest in division one.

They won their last game, the rain-affected visit of Warwickshire, courtesy of opener Michael Carberry making 192 not out in the second innings and will now be looking for bigger contributions from other young batsmen such as Michael Brown, Michael Lumb and Chris Benham.

While Durham have to wait for new signing Shivnarine Chanderpaul to sort out his work permit, his West Indian team-mate Daren Powell is expected to make his debut for Hampshire after replacing Australian Stuart Clarke.

Assuming Chanderpaul is available next week, this will be Scott Styris's final appearance for Durham and he will be desperate to improve a championship average of 23.87.

Durham are keeping faith with the batting line-up which flopped at Horsham, although they could leave out Ben Harmison to include both Graham Onions and Mark Davies.

After being left out at The Oval ahead of his appearance for England Lions against India last weekend, Onions will return for his first championship action since the Rose Bowl clash.

Michael Di Venuto, who made 174 of the 491 runs Durham totalled in two innings in that match, is making an excellent recovery from his broken finger and could be back in action at the end of next week.

His absence gives Mark Stoneman a chance to make his home debut on a pitch which is bound to have some moisture in it following another torrential downpour on Wednesday.

While that might not suit Warne, both he and fellow leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed continue to enjoy a stranglehold over Durham. The Australian was prepared to buy his wickets during his side's victory by 174 runs at Riverside last season, finishing with five for 135 in the second innings.

Durham (from): D M Benkenstein (capt), W R Smith, M Stoneman, K J Coetzer, S B Styris, P Mustard, B W Harmison, O D Gibson, L E Plunkett, P J Wiseman, G Onions, M Davies.

Durham's championship match against Surrey at Riverside has been scheduled to start a day earlier than advertised due to Durham's involvement in the Friends Provident Trophy Final at Lord's on August 18. The match will now start on Monday, August 13, allowing Durham to travel to London on the Friday.

The NatWest Pro40 match against Somerset Sabres at Taunton has been rescheduled to take place on Thursday, August 23 instead of its allocated date of Sunday, August 19.

Yorkshire, clinging to top spot by a point, will be looking widen the margin by completing the double over Surrey.

They are also desperate for a change to much drier weather because heavy rain has wrecked their last three outings.

Five of their last 12 days of Championship cricket have been totally obliterated and the first day's play has been washed away in the last three fixtures.

It is a far cry from the start of the season when Yorkshire played under blue skies and they were in tip-top form for the opening match at The Oval, when they crushed Surrey by 346 runs.