AFTER moving to the top of the LV County Championship yesterday, Durham now turn their attentions to consolidating top spot in the northern group of the NatWest T20 Blast.

It is rare for any county to do well in both, as tonight's hosts, Leicestershire, will testify. While winning the Twenty20 competition three times, they have gone from being the top four-day team in the late 1990s to the championship chopping blocks.

Durham moved on from their six-wicket win at Worcester yesterday to Grace Road for this evening's match and will complete a hectic week tomorrow by christening the new floodlights at home to Yorkshire.

While the marketing team back at base make every effort to attract the ground's record crowd for tomorrow's 7pm start, Durham must first focus on beating a Leicestershire side who did the T20 double against them last year.

Their overseas signings again give them the look of a strong T20 side and will reunite Paul Collingwood with an old adversary, New Zealand's Grant Elliott.

As England one-day captain at the Oval in 2008, Collingwood declined to withdraw a run-out appeal after Ryan Sidebottom, the bowler, collided with Elliott.

It caused quite a stir and Collingwood apologised for his “heat of the moment decision”, which he has said he will always regret.

Elliott will shortly join up with the New Zealand squad for the one-day internationals, having starred in the World Cup, when his unbeaten 84 carried them to their semi-final win against South Africa.

Leicestershire also include two Australians with strong T20 pedigrees in skipper Mark Cosgrove, a powerful left-handed batsman, and lanky seamer Clint McKay.

Cosgrove, who has also played for Glamorgan, has featured in three one-day internationals, while McKay has represented Australia in all formats.

Ireland's O'Brien brothers, Niall and Kevin, have already made T20 runs this season for the Foxes, with Niall's unbeaten 47 off 27 balls sealing last Friday's win against Derbyshire. Kevin is best known for his World Cup century against England in 2011.

Durham will stand by the team which has won the first two games, involving three changes from the championship line-up. Phil Mustard, Usman Arshad and Ryan Pringle come in for Michael Richardson, Paul Coughlin and Graham Onions.

Richardson saw Durham home with an unbeaten 66 yesterday, when they needed only 42 minutes to complete a six-wicket win. All four victories have come when batting last.

With 48 needed on a sunny morning, Collingwood scored the first 16 before his haste to finish the job saw him edge Charlie Morris to the wicketkeeper.

He pulled Joe Leach for six in taking 13 off the first four balls of the second over, but departed for 127, his highest championship score since making 181 at Taunton ten years ago.

Richardson scored 25 of the remaining runs in partnership with Gordon Muchall.

Collingwood admitted Durham looked “down and out” when they were 103 for nine, 220 runs adrift, in their first innings and he felt to fight back from there made it one of his best wins as captain.

“We are very happy with where we are, but we need to keep on improving,” he said. “We are not playing at our best but we keep getting over the line.”