DURHAM will not have to face Andrew Flintoff in tonight’s crucial Twenty20 Cup tie at home to Lancashire as he joins Graham Onions and Paul Collingwood at England’s pre-Ashes training camp today.

His absence might benefit the visitors, however, as they were going well until they had to fit Flintoff into their side to give him match practice after his knee surgery.

Having been second in the championship, they promptly lost their four-day game at Riverside then the one at Liverpool against Hampshire, while their unbeaten Twenty20 record also vanished against Leicestershire this week.

That defeat for the group leaders did Durham no favours in the battle for second place, but at least they know that if they win their two remaining games they should qualify for the quarter-finals.

With two victories they could be denied only by Yorkshire winning both their matches and overtaking Durham’s currently superior run-rate.

Even if Durham lose to Lancashire it won’t quite be all over. They could progress through Yorkshire winning away to Leicestershire tonight then losing at home to Derbyshire on Sunday.

Alternatively, if Yorkshire lose tonight and win on Sunday, Durham could squeeze through by pulling off a big win at Grace Road on Sunday. With all three teams currently on eight points from four wins, Leicestershire have the best run-rate.

Liam Plunkett has progressed well this week following the groin injury which has kept him out for a month and will be with the squad tonight, although he is unlikely to play.

Mark Davies bowled 25 overs for the second team this week without any reaction and will practise again today.

Lancashire are still without all-rounder Tom Smith, who scored 57 not out to lead them to a six-wicket win with five balls to spare against Durham at Old Trafford.

He then missed the championship clash at Riverside with a side strain, while another change to the Red Rose line-up has seen V V S Laxman come in for Ashwell Prince.

The dapper Indian is a class act in longer forms of the game, but Durham will hope that their current overseas man, David Warner, can upstage him tonight.

He seemed to have adapted swiftly to the slowness of the pitch in Wednesday night’s win against Yorkshire, hitting three fours in reaching 19 off 17 balls before he skied an attempted hook to be caught in the deep.

No other batsman in the match managed as many boundaries, Phil Mustard hitting only one in topscoring with 26 for Durham.

The difficulty in batting first in a Twenty20 match at Riverside is that there is so little time available to assess the pitch and decide what a good total will be. But with 6pm starts Wednesday showed that conditions can deteriorate rapidly when batting second.

If the pitch again looks like being slow Lancashire could have an advantage through their three spinners, as they did at Old Trafford.

In addition to left-armers Gary Keedy and Steve Parry, Francois du Plessis has been effective with his leg spin.

Durham have the option to bring in Scott Borthwick, but Ben Harmison’s three wickets against Yorkshire are likely to secure his place.

Durham (from): W R Smith (capt), P Mustard, D Warner, K J Coetzer, D M Benkenstein, G J Muchall, I D Blackwell, G R Breese, B W Harmison, M E Claydon, N Killeen, S Borthwick.