DURHAM welcome back Stephen Harmison from England duty for the championship match against Northamptonshire, starting at the Riverside today.

Since taking five wickets on his Test debut at Trent Bridge, Harmison has bowled only in one innings in Durham's defeat by Glamorgan before the recall of Andrew Caddick and Alex Tudor saw him left on the Headingley sidelines.

The failure of England's attack in the innings defeat in the third Test could open the door for Harmison's return in the final Test at the Oval, where he could be expected to gain steep bounce.

A good performance for Durham meanwhile would not go amiss and he replaces Ian Hunter, whose inconsistency remains a matter of concern.

After taking two early wickets in the first innings at Colchester, he took none for 40 in seven wayward overs when he had the chance to bowl Durham to victory in the second innings.

"It's frustrating how he can go from the way he bowled on the first evening to the way he bowled in the second innings," said coach Martyn Moxon. "We just have to keep working on repeating his action.

"I haven't heard from the England selectors, but I was surprised Stephen Harmison didn't play at Headingley. He acquitted himself well at Trent Bridge and the more he bowled the better he got. It seems they wanted a bit more batting."

The defeat by Essex was Durham's eighth from 12 matches and with four games left they are 32 points adrift at the foot of division two.

Victory against third bottom Northants is essential if they are to avoid the wooden spoon and Harmison should be able to get among the wickets against a side whose captain, Mike Hussey, has departed on an Australia A tour.

All-rounder Tony Penberthy has taken over the captaincy and the replacement overseas man is left-arm swing bowler Matthew Inness, a Victoria teammate of Durham's replacement Brad Hodge, who has had his broken thumb taken out of plaster and batted in the nets yesterday.

Durham (from): N C Phillips (capt), M A Gough, G J Pratt, G J Muchall, N Peng, A M Thorpe, M J Symington, A Pratt, N C Phillips, A M Davies, N Killeen, S J Harmison.

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