NEWS
SCHEDULES
COLUMNS
PREVIOUS TOURS
OTHER SPORTS
STATISTICS
INTERVIEWS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Donald cracks two ribs in fielding accident

South African paceman Allan Donald is likely to be out of action for up to six weeks after cracking two ribs in a fielding accident.

Hospital x-rays today confirmed he cracked two ribs when he fell heavily on to the boundary fence during Warwickshire's National League game with Hampshire at Southampton on Sunday. Warwickshire won the match by 97 runs.

He took a skied catch off Shane Warne before crashing on to the advertising boards.

Donald's injury overshadowed his own formidable part in Warwickshire's Division Two victory. Earlier he had taken three for nine in six overs to claim the man-of-the-match award and peg Hampshire back as the prelude to a middle-order collapse.

Hampshire lost four wickets for six runs in only 20 balls and were later all out for 118 in reply to Warwickshire's 215 for eight after being put in.

Trevor Penney was top scorer for Warwickshire with 51 while opening batsman Nick Knight struck five boundaries in his 46.

A Southampton crowd of more than 3,000 came to witness Warne making his home debut for Hampshire and he played his part with two for 31 from nine overs.

Warne also scored seven when Hampshire batted but he came in at a time when defeat was inevitable. Only four Hampshire batsmen reached double figures and top scorer was Lee Savident, who made 25 and was only playing because of a warm-up injury to Peter Hartley.

In Division One Leicestershire and Sussex tied the game at Leicester after the visitors collapsed in their pursuit of the 165 victory target.

One-day supremo Michael Bevan struck 59 alongside Richard Montgomerieas Sussex looked to be heading for a comfortable victory.

Having been 113 for two with Australian Bevan and opener Montgomerie at the crease, Sussex closed on 164 for nine. Chris Lewis did most of the damage with four for 34.

It then needed tailenders Mark Robinson and James Kirtley to scramble through for a bye off the last ball to secure a share of the spoils and two points.

Leicestershire had made 164 for eight in the face of a spell of four for 23 from ex-Yorkshire seamer Robinson.

Kent completed a seven-wicket win over top-flight new boys Northamptonshire at Canterbury. In a low-scoring contest, Northants - put in by Kent captain Matthew Fleming - were dismissed for only 76 with Ben Phillips returning competition-best figures of four for 25.

Kent then took less then 19 overs to make their target, indebted to a third-wicket stand of 54 in 12 overs between Rahul Dravid (31 not out) and James Hockley (26).

Indian star Dravid hit six fours in his 47-ball innings after Kent had wobbled at nine for two. Matthew Walker was lbw to the first ball of the innings from Devon Malcolm and then Robert Key went the same way to Darren Cousins for three.

But Northants' pitiful total was never going to test the home side, for whom David Masters and James Golding - both on debut - picked up two for 10 and one for 18 off their respective nine overs.

A half-century from Keith Parsons saw Somerset Sabres get the better of their derby against Gloucestershire Gladiators at Taunton. Parsons (66) helped his team overcome a troublesome spell of five for 33 from the Gladiators' Australian medium-pacer Ian Harvey and post a total of That proved eight too many for the visitors, who finished on 173 all out after seamer Steffan Jones had taken four for 32 and left Mark Alleyne strandedunbeaten on 44 but unable to quite carry his team past their target.

Middlesex bounced back from Sunday's thrashing by Essex to record their first victory of the season when they easily beat Derbyshire by 71 runs in a one-sided Division Two game at Derby.

Derbyshire never threatened to overhaul the visitors' total of 185 for six on a slow pitch and there were still more than eight overs to bowl when Kevin Dean was run out. Off-spinner Paul Weekes worked his way through the lower order to finish with four for 26 - his best one-day figures - and the bowlers were always on top in a match where no batsman reached 40. Mark Ramprakash made 38 but Owais Shah and former Derbyshire batman Robin Weston shared the highest partnership of the match in adding 76 in 15 overs for the fourth wicket. Ramprakash was superbly caught by wicketkeeper Karl Krikken standing up to Aldred, but Shah and Weston carried Middlesex past 150. Shah made 37 before he edged Cork to Krikken and Weston gave the wicketkeeper his third victim when he dabbed at Mathew Dowman.

Derbyshire suffered an early setback when Australian Michael Di Venuto tried to run a ball from Angus Fraser to third man and was bowled in the seventh over. But the home side were never in the hunt and only a spirited stand of 38 in six overs between Krikken and Tim Munton rescued Derbyshire from complete humiliation.

Agencies