DURHAM could hand Graham Onions his first Royal London Cup appearance of the season in the final group game at home to Derbyshire today.

The visitors will not relish facing a bowler who took five for 23 to rout them for 63 in a championship match at Derby two years ago.

The choice lies between Onions and Jamie Harrison to fill the gap left by Usman Arshad's side injury for a game Durham must win.

Derbyshire are only one point behind them with a game in hand, but whoever loses will be out of the competition.

If Durham win they can be denied a quarter-final place only by Northamptonshire winning at home to Gloucestershire today and against Yorkshire at Headingley tomorrow.

After two defeats and a washout at Chester-le-Street it seems odd that Durham can still go through by recording only one home win in their defence of the trophy.

But they have won at Taunton, Northampton and Leicester, although not much should be read into the fact that both today's teams thrashed the hapless Foxes in their last 50-over appearances.

This should be a much more keenly-contested match, with both coaches stressing its importance.

Derbyshire's Hetton-born Graeme Welch said: “It's probably the biggest game of the season for us. We would love to go one step further than last year and test ourselves in a semi-final. We have a great method in 50-over cricket and certainly aren't scared of anybody.”

Durham's Jon Lewis said: “It's a massive game for us. We had the same scenario last season when he had to win our last two games and we managed to do that. We have been practising hard and we all know how vital this game is in defence of our trophy.”

Derbyshire have left-arm paceman Mark Footitt back after his involvement with the England squad and Tillakaratne Dilshan has also returned from Sri Lanka duty.

When the teams met at Derby in the NatWest T20 Blast the hosts seemed to be cantering to victory as long as Dilshan was there, but when John Hastings removed him for 54 they imploded and Durham won by five runs.

That indicated a lack of depth in Derbyshire's batting and they continue to rely heavily on Wes Durston and Wayne Madsen.

The back-up for Footitt also lacks experience with Staffordshire youngsters Ben Cotton and Alex Hughes supporting ex-Leicestershire all-rounder Shiv Thakor in the seam department.

Durham have had a week to prepare for the match, which has also given Paul Collingwood and Hastings the chance to get over their injuries.

They should be refreshed and raring to go as they enter the final month of the season knowing that the Royal London Cup is their one hope of silverware.

Durham (from): M D Stoneman (capt), P Mustard, S G Borthwick, G Clark, P D Collingwood, G J Muchall, R D Pringle, J W Hastings, K K Jennings, C Rushworth, J Harrison, G Onions.