YORKSHIRE have been dealt a hammer blow ahead of Saturday's Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy final at Lord's when leading strike bowler Chris Silverwood broke down with the recurrence of an ankle injury.

Silverwood, who is also Yorkshire's pinch-hitter in one-day games, managed only five overs on the first day of the Championship match with Hampshire at the Rose Bowl yesterday before limping off.

"He will not bowl again during the game and we will have to wait and see whether we can risk him in the final," said Yorkshire coach Wayne Clark.

"The plan at the moment is for him to have an injection in his ankle on the morning of the game and then we will leave it to the doctor to say whether he thinks Chris will be able to get through."

Silverwood has had problems with his left ankle for the past couple of weeks and he only played in the current game after reporting an improvement following an injection last week.

With Craig White unable to bowl even if he plays in the final and Ryan Sidebottom continuing to be troubled by a groin injury, Yorkshire badly need Silverwood to be at full throttle if at all possible in the hope of making early inroads into Somerset's batting.

White was expected to join Yorkshire in Southampton today and after batting in the nets a decision on whether to play him in the final will be made tomorrow.

Fortunately for Yorkshire, Anthony McGrath bolstered Yorkshire's threadbare attack yesterday and his medium-pacers brought him career-best figures of 4-49 as Hampshire were sent back for 269 in the Championship relegation struggle.

Yorkshire had lost openers Vic Craven and Chris Taylor by the close when they were 53-2 but Australian Matthew Elliott was still going strong on 30.

Winning the toss, Hampshire were given a good start by Neil Johnson and Jason Laney and with Silverwood soon off the field things were looking bleak for Yorkshire as the opening stand went past the 50 mark.

But at 59, Sidebottom had Johnson well caught by Richard Blakey moving to his left and in his following over Laney gave a bat and pad catch to Chris Taylor at silly mid-on.

McGrath, who has claimed many notable scalps in the past few weeks, added to them by flattening England batsman John Crawley's off-stump before having John Francis brilliantly caught at backward square leg by the leaping Matthew Wood who was on as 12th man in place of Silverwood.

It was McGrath who came back to end a rallying 76 stand in 20 overs between Robin Smith and Will Kendall by finding the edge to have Kendall caught at slip by Elliott and his first four-wicket haul was completed when he bowled Nic Pothas.

After a subdued start, Smith struck seven boundaries in his 58 when Steve Kirby dug a couple in short and then pinned him lbw.

Yorkshire's tiring attack conceded 60 in 20 overs to the ninth wicket pair of Shaun Udal and James Hamblin before both went in quick succession, Hamblin being caught by the watchful Elliott off Richard Dawson and Udal's stumps being shattered by Kirby.

The Yorkshire reply began shakily with Craven hitting a ball from Dimitri Mascarenhas which stopped on him straight to Crawley at cover but Elliott soon took charge with some firm strokes and it was only in the closing stages of the day that he lost Taylor who was deceived by Udal into giving a catch to Laney at silly point.

Frizzell County Championship

Division Two

Riverside: Durham 240 (M W H Inness 4-60) v Northamptonshire 60-1

Colwyn Bay: Nottinghamshire 325-3 (J E R Gallian 162 no, G E Welton 92) v Glamorgan

New Road: Middlesex 374-7 (E C Joyce 125, S G Koenig 81, D C Nash 67 no, Kabir Ali 5-70) v Worcestershire

Updated: 11:53 Wednesday, August 28, 2002