DURHAM yesterday pulled Nicky Hatch out of the second team game against Lancashire at Stockton to join the senior squad for today's C & G Trophy third round tie against Wales at Cardiff.

The choice will lie between Hatch and Marc Symington to take over from Ian Hunter, who suffered an abdominal injury on Monday, when acting captain Paul Collingwood twisted his knee.

He suffered some medial ligament damage and is very doubtful, so it is just as well that skipper Jon Lewis is fit to return after his back injury.

Collingwood's absence would require Gordon Muchall to make his one-day debut in the sort of match which is always a potential banana skin, as Durham discovered in Holland three years ago.

Wales have 39-year-old former West Indian Test star Phil Simmons as their overseas player, and his record against Durham for Leicestershire is enough to ensure Durham take nothing for granted.

Former Glamorgan wicketkeeper Colin Metson captains Wales, but their only other player with first-class experience, seamer Steve Barwick, is ruled out by a knee injury.

Wales scraped through their second round tie last September by three runs against the Sussex County Board at Hastings, with Simmons scoring 51 in their total of 238, then taking three for 34.

It is not an ideal trip for Durham so soon after returning from Cardiff, where they suffered four-day and one-day defeats against Glamorgan.

Following recent wet weather in South Wales, the pitch is likely to be as slow as when Durham mustered only 141 for nine in their 45 overs in the National League match ten days ago.

Equally, it is unlikely to suit Simmons' dashing strokeplay, and given that Wales lost their only match so far this season, against the Worcestershire Board, it will be a major embarrassment if Durham lose.

Victory should earn them a repeat of last season's fourth round trip to Bristol on June 18 or 19 as Gloucestershire play Shropshire today at Telford.

Although Gloucestershire had won the competition in its final two seasons as the NatWest Trophy, Durham beat them then lost to Lancashire at Blackpool in the quarter-finals.

Durham (from): J J B Lewis (capt), G Pratt, M A Gough, M L Love, P D Collingwood, N Peng, G Muchall, A Pratt, M Symington, N Killeen, G D Bridge, A M Davies, N Hatch.

Wales: J P J Sylvester, A Jones, S Morris, P Simmons, R W Sylvester, R J Skone, O A Dawkins, A D Towse, N Gage, C P Metson (capt), J Davies, L Jones.Ends

l England will discover over the next week whether their hard work in formulating a technique to combat Muttiah Muralitharan last year will also succeed in English conditions.

Coach Duncan Fletcher and captain Nasser Hussain's homework against Muralitharan was so successful during last year's 2-1 series victory in Sri Lanka that he was restricted to just 14 wickets during the three-Test series and his strike rate reduced to a wicket every 100 balls.

Those tactics, developed after analysing videos of Murali's action over the previous couple of years, were not needed during the first Test because the prolific off-spinner was nursing a sore left shoulder sustained in Sharjah recently.

But despite negative reports following the drawn opening Test at Lord's suggesting Murali would be ''unlikely'' to regain fitness in time for this week's second encounter at Edgbaston, he is now expected to make his comeback in Birmingham tomorrow.

That presents England with a whole new set of challenges to overcome and players like Mark Butcher, John Crawley, Andrew Flintoff and Alex Tudor will have to master all the intricacies of Murali's guile and spin.

''The last series was a triumph for the coach, but also for the players,'' stressed Hussain. ''There's no point giving the players stick when they don't do well, but then when they do well say well done to the coach. The coach not only had a method, but he had a method which he didn't enforce on everyone.''