SURREY V DURHAM DYNAMOS at the Kia Oval (YB40), 9 MAY 2013

It's still early days and, yet, Surrey are now the only unbeaten side in Group B of the Yorkshire Bank 40. But how much will the South Londoners be hit by the injury to new skipper Graeme Smith?

Other than Phil Mustard, with the bat, and 23-year-old seamer Mark Wood, with the ball, we're also waiting to see if Durham are capable of reproducing the kind of form that carried them into the semi-finals a couple of years ago. If last season is anything to go by their batting strength is concentrated in Mark Stoneman, Phil Mustard and Gordon Muchall, since nobody else managed over 155 runs across the entire campaign. In terms of economy, the experienced Gareth Breese was the pick of the Dynamos' attack in 2012, while 26-year-old seamer Chris Rushworth proved to be something of a partnership breaker. One suspects much depends on the form of Paul Collingwood, who averaged just 20.66 with the bat and only managed to pick up the one wicket, for a cost of 161, last term.

Click here for the Surrey v Durham List A Records sheet as at the start of the 2013 season.

Durham's Dale Benkenstein is set to make his 300th List A appearance, while Paul Collingwood is just five shy of 10,000 one-day career runs.

The squad for this game is still to be announced, but today's news that Graeme Smith will be flying back to South Africa, to have his ankle assessed, is a massive downer; especially coming just a few days after one of the most dominant Surrey one-day displays of all time.

With Graeme Smith unavailable, all bets are off. Durham have had much the better of their recent one-day forays with the Oval outfit. The Dynamos have won seven of the last ten meetings to Surrey's two. The visit to the Riverside in 2011 was abandoned without a ball being bowled, amidst rumours that Durham's super-sopper had packed up. Either way, it did Surrey's victorious CB40 campaign a massive favour. But, I'm beginning to ramble... Surrey haven't won back-to-back 40-over games since last June, so I've got a feeling this one could go the way of our friends from the north. Always the pessimist! Sorry, but I have witnessed far too many false dawns following the 'rey.

P Mustard (wk), M Stoneman, R Pringle, P Collingwood, D Benkenstein (capt), B Stokes, G Muchall, G Breese, S Borthwick, M Wood and C Rushworth.

Peter Hartley and Neil Mallender.

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