Injury ends Kaneria's season

Danish Kaneria's injury is a blow to Essex's title hopes this season

Essex physio Peter Gettings has confirmed that spinner Danish Kaneria is set to undergo an operation on a broken finger and will miss the remainder of the county season.

The 27-year-old Pakistan leg-spinner fractured his spinning finger on the second day of Essex’s LV County Championship Division Two clash with Worcestershire.

Kaneria suffered the injury when he failed to hold onto a fierce drive by Worcestershire batsman Ben Smith in the match at Colchester.

“Danish Kaneria suffered a small fracture on the end of a finger attempting to take a return catch on day two of the match,” Gettings said.

“He saw a hand specialist on Friday morning at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford for a second opinion on the best management of the injury.

“It was decided he needs an operation and will miss the rest of the English county season.

“The only area left for discussion is whether Danish will have the operation in England or back in Pakistan.”

Essex first-team coach Paul Grayson admitted that in spinner Tim Phillips they have a player who is a capable deputy for Kaneria as they continue to press for promotion.

“Danish's injury is a big blow to us because he's a world-class performer and has been a massive part of our success,” Grayson added.

“But we have a good replacement in Tim Phillips, who has played a big part for us in one-day games in previous years, so this is a good opportunity for him to show what he can do.”