Armoury of Bond to menace Yorkshire

9:05am Tuesday 22nd April 2008

Yorkshire will have to combat Hampshire pace ace Shane Bond if they are to begin their quest for County Championship glory in a positive fashion at Headingley Carnegie tomorrow.

Hampshire, who drew their opening round fixture against champions Sussex last week, travel north with the most potent bowling weapon in English county cricket.

Former New Zealand Test star Bond began his Rose Bowl career last week with sparkling figures of 7-66.

But Tykes' batsman Jacques Rudolph said: "We are not just concentrating on him.

"What we're concentrating on, as a batting unit, is that we'd love to go into the Hampshire game, get a good score, and build momentum from there."

Rudolph should be in the best possible position to combat the pace and swing, having scored a century against Leeds/Bradford UCCE last week.

Matthew Hoggard is expected to recover from the stiff neck he woke up with on Saturday, but captain Darren Gough is struggling to be fit with a back strain.

Adil Rashid has joined Hoggard and Michael Vaughan in England's 26-man Performance Squad for the forthcoming summer.

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