Darren Gough's battle to regain full fitness and win back his England place suffered a setback at Headingley yesterday when he was forced to leave the field with a hamstring injury on a grim day for Yorkshire Phoenix who were skittled out for 54 by Essex Eagles, their lowest score in one-day cricket.

After Essex had been put in to bat, Gough bowled three tidy overs for seven runs and was steaming in to bowl the second delivery of his fourth over when he suddenly pulled up and then threw the ball to wicketkeeper Richard Blakey.

There was little indication of what Gough had done, but he quickly decided to leave the field and seek out physiotherapist Scott McAllister for treatment.

It was later confirmed that Gough had not damaged the right knee which has kept him mainly sidelined for the past 18 months but had sustained a hamstring injury on his left leg.

Gough had icepack treatment on the injury which was not thought to be too serious, but McAllister said the situation should become clearer today.

"I felt a slight twinge while I was running in and I decided not to go through with it," said Gough. Although Gough's departure was a big blow to Yorkshire, they bowled quite well without him and must have been reasonably satisfied at restricting Essex to 211 for six, Tim Bresnan being the pick of the seamers with a career-best three for 29.

But there could be no excuse for the pathetic way nearly all of their batsmen got out and with Gough being unable to bat they closed two runs short of their previous lowest score of 56 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in 1995 when they were torn apart by Allan Donald.

This time it was Graham Napier and Scott Grant who did the damage, Grant firing out four of the first five batsmen in the space of 24 balls to end up with four for 18 while Grant claimed four for 25 as Essex stormed home by 157 runs with almost 25 overs remaining.

The rot started in the first over when Michael Lumb swung wildly at Brant and was caught behind by James Foster and several others were just as guilty of recklessness, including Michael Vaughan, who was also caught by Foster as he tried to pick up a ball outside off stump and hit it over square leg. Vaughan's dismissal made Yorkshire 14 for four, Matthew Wood and Anthony McGrath having fallen in the space of four balls to edged shots in Napier's previous over.

It became 24 for seven as Vic Craven flashed at a wide one from Napier, Blakey was bowled hitting across the line at Brant and in the same over Andy Gray was pinned lbw. Ryan Sidebottom got four off his first ball, which was dropped by Will Jefferson at second slip and the left-hander and Bresnan more than doubled the score before Bresnan holed out at cover off a Brant full toss, the innings being wrapped up by Joe Grant who had Steven Kirby lbw.

Earlier in a short but eventful day, the crowd was treated to some powerful shots from Essex's 6ft 10in opener Jefferson who struck 57 off as many balls with eight boundaries. There was also a carefully compiled half-century from Aftab Habib.