By Jon Steer
August 2 2005

Nicky Peng has been added to the squad for the championship match against Essex which starts at Southend tomorrow. Peng will replace Paul Collingwood who has been called into the England squad for thursday's second test. Peng was dropped before the Somerset match after a disappointing season so far. With just five matches left for Durham in the County Championship losing star batsman Paul Collingwood to England is a blow. Colly had already missed a large part of the season so far when representing England in the one day series' against Australia and Bangladesh.

Colly has passed 100 in four of his last five championship innings and was awarded the Frizzell County Championship performance of the month award for July. His replacement Nicky Peng has struggled to show what he is capable of this season with an average of less than 15 and a highest score of just 39.

If not selected for England Colly could replace Peng in the team during the day on thursday.

The Essex game will be the first championship match to be played at Southend-on-Sea and will form part of the Southend Cricket Festival. Durham beat Essex by an innings at the Riverside earlier in the season and will hope for a good result to increase their lead at the top of division two.

Durham are currently 24 points clear of Yorkshire but the tykes have a game in hand.