Date-stamped : 28 Jul97 - 14:43 AXA League: Cork running well ahead of his schedule By Neil Hallam at Chesterfield Derbyshire (106-2) bt Glamorgan (103) by 8 wkts ANYBODY who expected Dominic Cork`s comeback after a season of frustrating injury problems to be gradual and restrained rather than dramatic and conducted at full-throttle seriously underesti- mated the Derbyshire all-rounder`s acute sense of oc- casion. Like his hero Ian Botham, he is one of those cricketers who seems at his happiest confounding expectation and he did it again in his first senior game since April with six for 21, the best Sunday League bowling figures of his career, as Glam- organ were hurried to an eight-wicket defeat with more than 20 overs to spare. Inevitably, this will stir the hope that a proven match-winner might soon be available for England again but Cork, who under- went surgery on his groin only five weeks ago, yesterday played down this prospect. "I am not even thinking about a schedule for getting back into the reckoning with England," he said. "Performance and fitness will dictate that but if I keep on producing figures like these, I would hope to get back in the frame eventually." Cork was well ahead of his recuperative timetable last week when, in his first game since breaking down in Derbyshire`s open- ing championship fixture of the summer, he took four wickets for six runs in 18 balls in a second-XI match in which he was not expected to bowl. "At the moment, the advice is to play only in the one-day stuff. We don`t want to rush things and risk undoing all the work that has got me back in action," he said. "Physically, things have gone well with no reaction to playing again apart from a bit of stiffness and tiredness but I don`t feel my bowling rhythm is quite right yet." He could have fooled Glamorgan. If Cork`s batting revealed ev- idence of tiredess and rustiness, his bowling did not as the Welshmen, already stricken by illness, subsided for 103 in 27 overs. Their captain, Matthew Mayward, was ruled out with suspected chicken pox as well as suffering from a stomach upset which also kept out Darren Thomas and had Darren Cosker and Adrian Shaw feeling below par. Derbyshire had Kim Barnett, Karl Krikken, Michael May and Matt Vandrau similarly afflicted and Glamorgan, who won the toss, had fur- ther reasons for feeling queasy as their upper batting perished cheaply. They were already struggling at 52 for four when Cork was in- troduced and further resistance was minimal as he tempted Tony Cottey to carve to deep point in his second over, then bowled Gary Butcher off an inside edge. Adrian Shaw was pinned half forward, Steve Watkin was held in the gully and Cork eclipsed his previous best Sunday League fig- ures of four for 44 against Warwickshire on the same ground in 1994 when he flattened Dean Cosker`s off-stump and had Owen Parkin plumb in front. Cork also underlined his taste for combat by leaving Waqar Younis writhing with a ball which thudded into his box and then zip- ping a bouncer past the end of his nose but the flesh was visibly weakening as he took 16 overs to make 33 before holing out wearily to long-off in Derbyshire`s easy canter to 106 for two. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)