Paul Collingwood looked in fine fettle before his expected return to the England side at Trent Bridge tomorrow as he struck an unbeaten 65 from 55 balls to add to a pair of wickets late in the Worcestershire innings.

Although Michael Di Venuto took centre stage in an unbroken third-wicket stand of 141 in 20 overs, it was Collingwood who finished the NatWest Pro40 first division game with a six. His four-match ban for supervising a slow over-rate now complete, Collingwood can expect to slot into the England middle order against South Africa and his timing was close to perfect on a decent pitch and with an outfield giving good value for shots. Di Venuto completed a hundred from 97 balls against bowling that was too short.

Worcestershire would have been in an even sorrier state without Steven Davies, who followed his unbeaten 103 from 89 balls against Lancashire with 59 from 43, including 50 runs in boundaries. Yet he paid for over-adventure when he went across his stumps attempting to work Ben Harmison through mid-wicket, and later missed a chance to stump Collingwood on 39. Graham Onions found early movement and Paul Wiseman's off spin blocked any hope of a mid-innings recovery.

His wickets included Graeme Hick shortly after he scored the 30 needed to become the second man after Graham Gooch to compile 22,000 runs in List A one-day cricket.

Scoreboard

Worcestershire
*V S Solanki c Di Venuto b Davies 3
S M Davies b B W Harmison 59
S C Moore c Mustard b Onions 0
B F Smith b Onions 2
G A Hick lbw b Wiseman 35
D K H Mitchell c Di Venuto b Plunkett 7
M M Ali c Mustard b Collingwood 22
G J Batty lbw b Wiseman 1
G M Andrew c B W Harmison b Collingwood 25
Imran Arif not out 16
A J Harris not out 1
Extras (lb 1, w 11) 12
Total (9 wkts, 40 overs) 183

Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-15, 3-61, 4-73, 5-87, 6-128, 7-133, 8-143, 9-181.

Bowling: Onions 8-1-31-2; Davies 4-1-41-1; B W Harmison 6-0-27-1; Plunkett 8-1-30-1; Wiseman 8-0-27-2; Collingwood 6-0-26-2.

Durham
M J Di Venuto not out 101
P Mustard c Davies b Andrew 9
S Chanderpaul c Hick b Arif 6
P D Collingwood not out 65
Extras (w 6) 6
Total (2 wkts, 30.2 overs) 187

W R Smith, *D M Benkenstein, B W Harmison, L E Plunkett, P J Wiseman, G Onions and M Davies did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-46.

Bowling: Arif 7.2-1-47-1; Harris 6-0-39-0; Andrew 5-0-29-1; Mitchell 3-0-22-0; Batty 4-0-23-0; Ali 5-1-27-0.

Umpires: I J Gould and B Leadbeater.