JAMES ANDERSON went head to head with his England pace partner Steve Harmison in the North-East today, but Lancashire were missing Iain Sutcliffe and Kyle Hogg.

Anderson returned from his five-wicket Test debut at Lord's to boost the Lancashire attack against Durham as they aimed for a place in the C&G Trophy quarter finals.

England manager Duncan Fletcher cleared all the centrally contracted players for the knockout competition, although Andy Flintoff was again ruled out by his shoulder injury.

And Flintoff was joined on the sidelines by both Hogg, who is still recovering from a calf injury, and Sutcliffe, who has had some bone filed off a broken thumb.

Lancashire manager Mike Watkinson explained that the former Oxford University boxer had suffered the injury during the winter, and it flared up during the last Championship game against Essex.

"He had the bone filed off last Tuesday, and we thought he might have been available for the Durham game," Watkinson said. "But it's turned out to be a more painful process than we thought."

Lancashire still hope that Sutcliffe may return in the crucial Championship game against Kent which starts at Canterbury on Friday.

Hogg is also likely to miss that game with Watkinson determined not to take any chances with his calf. "It was a pretty serious tear that he suffered up at Durham in our National League game," he said.

"Because Kyle's young and pretty active he's come back training with us quickly, but it's still only 75 per cent and we've got to think about the long-term. We don't want to rush him too far too soon."

That meant another chance for Sajid Mahmood, who has been so impressive in two National League appearances plus the friendly against Durham University over the last week.

Durham had a number of surprises in their line-up, with wicket keeper Andrew Pratt and former Essex all-rounder Danny Law both dropped to the second team also playing Lancashire at Blackpool.

Pratt was replaced by Phil Mustard, a highly-rated young keeper who is also a left-handed opener, with seamer Mark Davies returning for the first time since breaking down in the nets in a pre-season friendly at Old Trafford with a suspected collapsed lung.

However, Durham were still missing their England all-rounder Paul Collingwood, who suffered a dislocated shoulder in that game, although they did include two in-form overseas players - Aussie batsman Martin Love and Dewald Pretorius, a seamer who has been selected in the South Africa squad for the series against England later in the summer.