Injury concern for Yorkshire

Yorkshire spent most of the third day at Trent Bridge with good reason to frown - and never more so than when they lost their Pakistani pace bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan to a worrying injury.

Rana left the field complaining of a sore neck and shoulder, after only three balls of a day which saw Nottinghamshire jockey into an ever favourable position in this LV County Championship Division One match.

Yorkshire director of cricket Martyn Moxon remained optimistic about Rana’s prognosis - and after the White Rose had closed on 107 for four, in pursuit of an increasingly unlikely 403 to win, it was time they heard some good news.

“He could hardly move it at one stage,” Moxon recalled of an injury which caused inevitable extra concern for a cricketer who last year needed surgery on a dislocated right shoulder after a horrific fall in the outfield when playing for Sussex at Durham.

“We don’t think it’s connected with what he had before,” a relieved Moxon added.

“It is more of a nerve problem, we think, and we’re hoping he’s going to be okay.”

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan had to go off the field with a sore neck after just three balls

Rana remained off the field throughout. But even as Yorkshire’s task was becoming more difficult, Nottinghamshire ploughing on to 350 in their second innings and Mark Ealham then taking three late wickets to undermine an attempted run chase, the Pakistani’s pain was causing him notably fewer grimaces on the sidelines.

“He had been feeling it for a couple of days but thought he was okay this morning, and in the warm-up,” Moxon reported.

“Then it just came back as soon as he started to bowl.

“He’s struggling to bat and bowl, so we don’t know if he’ll be able to play much further part in the match.”

Rana’s ability to bat on the final day could yet have a significant impact on a match which Nottinghamshire need to win to go back to the top of the table.

Irrespective of that, though, his absence with the ball has already made things harder for Yorkshire - minus a major option while Samit Patel (60) and Graeme Swann (57) were boosting the home total.

“We were hoping he might be the man this morning with the old ball, and reverse swing,” Moxon admitted.

“It didn’t swing anyway. But we ended up having to use the other seamers for a couple more overs than we wanted before the second new ball; then when we got it, there was no swing before lunch with that either.”