MICHAEL Di Venuto needs 15 runs from Durham's match starting at the Oval today to reach the notable landmark of 25,000 in first-class cricket.

The only current cricketer ahead of him is Surrey's Mark Ramprakash, who has more than 35,000. Next comes Sachin Tendulkar with 24,389, although he has played more than 100 fewer innings than Di Venuto.

Surrey will have Jacques Rudolph back today after missing last week's Worcestershire match through family reasons. The ex-Yorkshire batsman is with Surrey until he joins up with the South African squad in June.

It will be interesting to see whether Ramprakash is the one to make way after being reported by the umpires last week for a breach of the disciplinary code, which usually relates to offensive language or a gesture.

The incident has earned Ramprakash his second three-point penalty in two years and a third would result in an automatic suspension.

After the frustrations of Lord's Durham could face an action replay with a trip to London to take on promoted opponents in a match likely to be interrupted by rain on a pitch favouring the seamers.

Surrey manager Chris Adams criticised the Lord's pitch a few days before Durham's visit, but his side fared little better at home to Worcestershire, totalling 140 and 224 while the visitors made 119 and 94 for one.

The Oval is known for excellent pitches with good bounce but last week's apparently produced several examples of uneven bounce on the third day, when 19 wickets fell, and the ball seamed about so much that 12 players fell to edged catches.

Like Graham Onions at Lord's, Worcestershire's Alan Richardson, one of Wisden's five players of the year, took ten wickets in the match.

But batting appeared much easier on the final day, when the visitors looked like reaching their target until the rain arrived.

"The pitch confused me," said Adams. "It looked a belter on the final afternoon. We certainly expected more with the new ball, in terms of movement."

With Ben Stokes not expected to bowl because of a back problem, Durham are likely to hand Ruel Brathwaite his first championship outing of the season.

Surrey have five seamers in their 13-man squad, including England one-day player Jade Dernbach, former Gloucestershire veteran Jon Lewis and all-rounder Chris Jordan, who still wants to play for England, despite interest from West Indies coach Ottis Gibson.

It is Durham's first four-day visit to the Oval since 2007, when Surrey needed 154 to win a low-scoring match. Steve Harmison took all the wickets in reducing them to 50 for four before Rikki Clarke and Mark Butcher knocked off the runs.

The following year the sides met at Guildford and Will Smith scored a double century to hasten Surrey's relegation.

Durham (from): P Mustard (capt), M J Di Venuto, W R Smith, P D Collingwood, B A Stokes, D M Benkenstein, I D Blackwell, S G Borthwick, C D Thorp, G Onions, M E Claydon, R M R Brathwaite, C Rushworth.