Steve Harmison's Ashes Hopes Hit By Shin Injury
The pain of Durham's narrow defeat by Yorkshire was compounded by a shin injury to HarmisonSteve Harmison's hopes of forcing his way back into England contention before the Ashes series have suffered another blow with a shin injury that could be a stress fracture. Harmison has already been ruled out of Durham's last two qualifying matches in the Friends Provident Trophy after feeling soreness in his shin during their defeat by Sussex at Hove earlier this week.
"He's back in the north-east now," said the county's director of cricket Geoff Cook after a fifth defeat in six matches that removed any outside chance they had of qualifying for the quarter finals. "He's had stress fractures in the past so he's going to have to have it checked out."
Harmison's fellow England discard Michael Vaughan also missed this game because of a hamstring problem, but the loyal Yorkshire supporters huddled in the increasingly bitter cold were not remotely bothered as Richard Pyrah crowned a fine all-round performance by snatching an unlikely victory with four balls to spare.
The game, and with it any realistic chance Yorkshire had of making the last eight, appeared to be slipping away as they were tied down by Durham's spinners Ian Blackwell and Gareth Breese, who had combined figures of four for 47 from 20 overs to reduce Yorkshire to 130 for eight in the 44th over. But Pyrah, a 26-year-old all-rounder from Ossett who had already taken three for 23 with his impressively lively seam-up bowling, produced the most intelligent and authoritative batting of the day on a tricky pitch to end unbeaten on 42 from 49 balls.
David Wainwright, a 24-year-old left-arm spinner from Pontefract, provided sensible support in an unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 37 - the second highest of the match - that will send Yorkshire south next week for their last two group games against Sussex and Surrey in high spirits.
Vaughan is not yet sure whether he will be fit to join them, . Like Harmison, he must be touched by the faith of Australia's captain Ricky Ponting, who maintained in a television interview broadcast that he expects both to be involved in the Ashes series later this summer.
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