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The 22-year-old seamer, who was dropped by England after a wayward performance in the Old Trafford Test, thought his work was done yesterday after collecting career-best one-day figures of four for 15 in an Essex innings that lasted only 95 minutes, admitting afterwards that, in an attack which also included the wicketless Steve Harmison, the veteran new-ball pair of Neil Killeen and Ottis Gibson had done most of the damage for Durham.

But less than 10 overs later, in seam-friendly conditions that were nevertheless nothing like tricky enough to justify such mayhem, Plunkett was walking out to join Gibson with Durham on 38 for seven.

Later in that over Gibson chipped the Essex seamer Graham Napier to mid-on where Danish Kaneria dived forward but grassed a difficult chance to reduce them to 39 for eight, with only Harmison and Killeen to come. The match’s only no-ball from Napier then gave Plunkett a free hit, and he capitalised with a straight six which brought the day’s loudest roar.

The 4,065 crowd cheered every run after that, and Plunkett hinted that Duncan Fletcher may not have been so potty in identifying him as a potential England No8 by pulling Andy Bichel for one precious boundary and using his feet to loft Kaneria for another. “With all the criticism he’s had in the last three weeks, some of it unjust for a young lad finding his way in the international scene, he’s showed how big his balls are and I’m so pleased for him,” Harmison said after Plunkett had punched Martin Saggers through the covers for the winning runs in a match where Gibson’s unbeaten five from 27 balls was the third-longest innings.

“When you’re playing in the Tests and it’s not coming out well, and everybody’s watching and the commentators are saying things, you get a bit down,” Plunkett added. “It’s good to come back here and get the fight back in me.”

Harmison, who reiterated his desire to delay a hernia operation for as long as he is able this season, said that winning a Lord’s final with his county would be “one of the highlights of my career”. He also confidently claimed that the current Durham team would have been too strong for West Indies after Gibson, the 38-year-old Barbadian who has been outstanding all season and also played a part in Plunkett’s recovery last week by helping him modify his run-up, again put on a display which suggested that West Indies could have done worse than recall him last week – after almost a decade’s absence – to exploit the Riverside’s conditions.

He had Alastair Cook caught behind off the inside edge for a duck, wrecking the opener’s chances of making a late claim to be included in England’s one-day squad in front of the selector Geoff Miller, and then claimed the key wickets of Grant Flower and James Foster with consecutive balls.

At the other end Mark Pettini and Varun Chopra gifted their wickets to the mean Killeen with hare-brained shots, and after Bichel and Napier led a slight recovery to 66 for seven, Plunkett cleaned up.