ALLAN DONALD says that, at 28, he is beginning to feel the strain. Look carefully and you can detect the outline of a corset round his waist, designed to support the muscles and keep them warm. But Donald's temperature yesterday at Lord's was hot, and it was Northamptonshire that took the strain.

With three balls of his 12-over spell still to go this morning, Donald has already taken three wickets for 31. The first of his victims, Richard Montgomerie, was out to an unplayable ball that turned almost a foot down the slope like a fast offbreak.

It was fierce, and Northamptonshire's run of formidable opening stands, which had brought them all the way to the final, was broken. They never recovered.

Donald looks fierce too; smearing his cheekbones and his lips with white sun block; his broad-brimmed hat casts a shadow over his face. He looks like someone you would badly want on your side. But the same hat reveals the playful side of the man. He flips it like a frisbee to the umpire at the start of an over as he strides to his mark. He doesn't look to see if he has missed the target and the umpire has to stoop to retrieve it.

Only a bold critic would argue that Donald is any less valuable to Warwickshire than Brian Lara was last year, and yesterday the bowler dropped a hint that it might be him, and not Lara, at the county next season.

When asked whether he would return - presumably as a bowler, not a coach, which was to be his role had Lara not asked for a year's release from his contract - Donald was opaque. "I don't know," he said. Then he said: "I might be."

The reason for his uncertainty is much the same as Lara's - both fear the physical effect of overwork. "The decision is important, not only for myself but for my career."

Donald's main ambition is not to win trophies for Warwickshire but to take 200 wickets for South Africa. He has 75 so far, though he will no doubt add to that total in five Tests against England.

He is a generous opponent and had some advice for England's selectors, noting that at least three of the five Test pitches this winter will be played on quick wickets: "I think they would be silly not taking Devon Malcolm. We've seen him bowl and he's a match-winner."

You don't have to be a match- winner to spot another, but it helps.