Cricket: Onions Relishes Harmison's Absence to Post Career Best

For a bowler touted as an England prospect, Graham Onions admits he did not start the season particularly well. Bowling in tandem with an in-form Steve Harmison, his determination not to lose out in comparison caused him, in his own words, to "tense up a little bit".

Take Harmison out of the equation however, as he was for much of last season when Onions took 54 first-class wickets, and the Gateshead-born seamer is a different character. Five Warwickshire wickets yesterday, to add to the three on Thursday, gave him a return of eight for 101, a career-best by some margin and the second-best return by a Durham bowler in the county's 15-year first-class history.

"I love it when the captain throws me the new ball. That's what I thrive on," he said. "When Harmy's around he gets thrown the ball and maybe knowing I'm a little bit down the pecking order does affect me. This will give me a lot of confidence." Consistency will be the key for him, as it was to some extent in the Warwickshire innings.

His opening spell gave him three for 12 off eight overs and his final burst, again with a new ball, five for 24. In between he bowled 11 wicketless overs for 65, mostly at Kumar Sangakkara, whom he eventually dismissed caught behind for 149.

With the wicket improving but still occasionally unpredictable, a positive result remains possible but would probably require some creative bargaining between the captains, one of whom, Dale Benkenstein, ended the day with an unbeaten half-century in the Durham reply.