Yorkshire Cricket by David Warner

Yorkshire are still firm favourites to beat Durham at Headingley tomorrow to move into the semi-finals of the Benson and Hedges Cup, despite the knock to their pride inflicted by Gloucestershire who have just beaten them by 300 runs in the championship.

Confidence has soared again following the AXA League win at Gloucester yesterday which kept them at the head of the table and the psychological advantage also remains very much with Yorkshire after hammering Durham by eight wickets in the last of the B & H group matches at Headingley on May 9.

Morale will further be boosted by the return of Darren Gough after his exploits with England in the Texaco Trophy series which underlined that he is still the most dangerous and feared fast bowler in the country.

But it remains to be seen if he will definitely be joined by his new ball partner Chris Silverwood who was having nets at Headingley today to see if his shin soreness will allow him to get through ten critical overs before he rests up for a further week.

Gough and Silverwood each claimed three wickets in the previous encounter with Durham and Yorkshire's chances will obviously be enhanced if they are working in harness again.

A doubt also remains over Gavin Hamilton who will have to wait until tomorrow morning to see if he has got rid of the pain in his left foot which has bothered him recently.

Although Byas insists that two bad championship defeats in a row have not damaged Yorkshire's ego, he has left his team in no doubt that nothing but a razor-sharp performance will do and that absolutely nothing can be taken for granted. "Durham are a good team this season and they came back well after we had beaten them, despite having several key players injured," he said.

"No side which qualifies for the last eight of the B&H can be a bad one and if we are not on our mettle then we will pay the price."Like Yorkshire, however, Durham took a nasty knock in the last series of championship matches when they lost to Kent at Canterbury by an innings and 27.

They were still without their Australian captain, David Boon, who broke a bone in his foot on the eve of Durham's last appearance at Headingley, but this tough batsman still has his sights set on a return tomorrow.

If Silverwood and Hamilton are both fit, then Yorkshire are likely to field the side which has already beaten Durham which means there will be no place in it for spinner Richard Stemp, but he and fast bowlers Ryan Sidebottom and Matthew Hoggard will be waiting in the wings to be called upon if necessary.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.