Morne Morkel limps home

2008-05-08 16:10

Johannesburg - Morne Morkel's county cricket season with Yorkshire came to an abrupt end when he suffered a grade 2 hamstring tear in his opening four-day match against Nottinghamshire at Headingley.

"This type of injury normally takes three weeks to clear up, so we decided the best thing was for Morne to come home for rest and recuperation," commented national cricket coach Mickey Arthur.

"It is obviously hugely disappointing for Morne but the good news is that he will be fit in plenty of time for the Proteas tour of England."

Morkel, who is a CSA contracted player, expressed his disappointment at not being able to continue his stint at Yorkshire.

"The people there were very good to me and I was enjoying my cricket at Leeds. I was particularly keen to pick up tips from their captain, Darren Gough, who was one of England's outstanding fast bowlers."

Morne's elder brother, Albie, was in prime form for the Chennai Super Stars in their match in the IPL against the Delhi Daredevils on Thursday.

He picked up two wickets at reasonable cost in his four overs including bowling his great friend, AB de Villiers, first ball. He then put Chennai on the road to a comfortable victory with a typical quick-fire knock of 30 off 15 balls (a strike rate of 200 percent) before being run out by a direct hit.

At one stage he hit Delhi captain Virender Sehwag for three successive sixes and in all 23 runs off the over.

In a previous match against the Deccan Chargers he struck a six that cleared the roof of the stands with an estimated travel of 125ms.

His bat speed at the moment of impact has been estimated to give the ball a speed of 108km/h.

But De Villiers had the last laugh when he took a brilliant outfield catch to dismiss Chennai captain MS Dhoni when 22 runs were needed off the last two overs. Nevertheless Chennai got home off the last ball, scoring 15 runs off the last over.

- SAPA