Report
Worcestershire regains division two lead as McGrath breaks new ground
Fast bowler Glenn McGrath has returned the best match figures of his career to lead Worcestershire to a 52 run success over Gloucestershire at New Road and guide it back to the top of Division Two of the County Championship
Staff and agencies
30-Jul-2000
Fast bowler Glenn McGrath has returned the best match figures of his career
to lead Worcestershire to a 52 run success over Gloucestershire at New Road
and guide it back to the top of Division Two of the County Championship.
The Australian paceman paired a second innings return of 3/40 with
yesterday's haul of 7/29 to claim overall figures of 10/69 and put the
skids under a Gloucestershire side that never seriously looked like
successfully pursuing a target of 237 to win. Only five days before he is
due to fly back to Melbourne to represent his nation in three one-day
internationals against South Africa, McGrath could hardly have exemplified
his worth to his adopted team any more effectively than with the fifth
return of ten wickets in a match in his career.
Speed, spirit and accuracy were all abundant again, albeit in a slightly less lethal package than the one he had concocted earlier in the fixture. It was a measure of his centrality to the outcome of proceedings that, as soon as he summoned the ability to strike twice in his third over - removing Dominic Hewson (4), with an edge to first slip, and Matt Windows (0), courtesy of an obvious lbw verdict - he had as good as defined Gloucestershire's fate.
Wicketkeeper Steve Rhodes also profited handsomely, his five catches for
the day permitting him the chance to equal his own county record of nine in
a game.
Full postEverything turns on Brown's dominance
From first to last, this Warwickshire-Northamptonshire County Championship battle was a match of oddities
Staff and agencies
30-Jul-2000
From first to last, this Warwickshire-Northamptonshire County Championship
battle was a match of oddities. It was contested on a pitch far drier than
is customary at Edgbaston; it was played in the presence of a boundary
shorter than usual on the ground's Pershore Road side; it featured a
dominant performance from not one, but two, Warwickshire spinners; and,
most of all, it contained the sight of Northamptonshire sustaining, and
actually converting, an advantage over an opponent in a season of more
downs than ups.
Ostensibly, it was the bowling of off spinner Jason Brown (whose 6/90 gave
him match figures of 11/178) which won this third day for Northamptonshire
and, with it, the game by a margin of 54 runs. There was nothing
particularly glamorous or demonstrative about his display but the gentle
subtleties of his flight, length and turn proved perfect for the situation
as Warwickshire found itself on the wrong side of a battle to chase down a
target of 259.
Brown was introduced into the attack early in the afternoon - with
Warwickshire already off to a shaky start at 30/2 - and promptly proceeded
to extinguish any vague semblance of life from his opponents' cause by
taking three wickets in the space of his opening ten deliveries. The
twenty-five year old lured David Hemp (3) into adopting the erroneous idea
of meekly lobbing the ball back in his direction; extracted an outside edge
from Trevor Penney (2); and then comprehensively beat an attempt at a sweep
from Dougie Brown (8). Later, he returned to skid an arm ball underneath
the defences of Ashley Giles (2) and to remove Warwickshire's two most
productive contributors - Neil Smith (67) and Nick Knight (43) - by way of
lbw decisions.
Full postBowler, Rose celebrate a day for the ages
Peter Bowler, a stalwart of over 250 first class games, celebrated his thirty-seventh birthday with his third century of the season as Somerset evened up its County Championship clash with Durham at Chester-le-Street today
Staff and agencies
30-Jul-2000
Peter Bowler, a stalwart of over 250 first class games, celebrated his
thirty-seventh birthday with his third century of the season as Somerset
evened up its County Championship clash with Durham at Chester-le-Street
today.
To experienced Bowler watchers, news of this latest century will come as no
surprise as the situation was tailor made for a man of such a temperament
and application. He restarted his innings at 62 today and built slowly
toward his landmark, so much so that he had still not ascended to it by
lunch. When it did come - in a minute over six hours and from 283 balls -
the generous and spontaneous applause that it prompted from the crowd was a
measure in itself of its quality and importance. By the time that Simon
Brown (3/69) eventually found a way to beat his defences with an off
cutter, he had reached 107 and had added a magnificent 157 in partnership
with the almost equally resilient Graham Rose (82*) for the seventh wicket.
The pair had taken Somerset from a dire position to one of near parity
with the Durham first innings of 292. That the tail enders could only
contribute another thirty-five to the total after Bowler made his exit only
reinforced the centrality of their twin contributions.
Here a word of praise needs to be devoted specifically to Rose, another
player nearer to forty years of age than thirty. When the Somerset innings
was eventually terminated at 280, he was left only eighteen short of his
own century - one that would likewise have been well deserved. To add to
his good day, he then had opener Michael Gough (5) edging to second slip as
Durham revisited the crease. With the score on 29, he struck again, this
time causing first innings centurion Jon Lewis (12) to shoulder arms and
ignominiously lose his off stump to a delivery that kept slightly low as it
swung in toward him. His was a fabulous all-round performance.
Full postBevan reclaims edge for Sussex after second Ramprakash hundred
Michael Bevan has responded to another excellent Mark Ramprakash hundred by firing a sweet half century of his own to afford Sussex a slight edge over Middlesex after three days of the teams' absorbing County Championship fixture at Southgate
Staff and agencies
30-Jul-2000
Michael Bevan has responded to another excellent Mark Ramprakash hundred by
firing a sweet half century of his own to afford Sussex a slight edge over
Middlesex after three days of the teams' absorbing County Championship
fixture at Southgate.
Bevan (57*) reached his milestone in smart time to lead the visitors to a
second innings mark of 118/3 by stumps, one which leaves them precisely 150
runs short of victory in a contest in which they have always appeared to
have their noses slightly in front. Typically, it was the Australian's eye
for spotting gaps in the field, and placing his shots into them with a
minimum of fuss, which lay at the core of his innings. Although an
injudicious attempt from Toby Pierce (25) to loft a Phil Tufnell (2/39)
delivery over mid wicket and a similarly ill-timed lapse in concentration
from Chris Adams (20) in pushing out an arm ball from the same bowler did
not help the cause, his efforts largely ensured that Sussex was back on
track for success by the time that stumps were finally drawn.
Just in case no-one had noticed the events of two days ago, it had earlier
been Ramprakash (112) who had dominated the opening two sessions of the
day's play with a brilliantly crafted fiftieth first-class century. Right
now - with another Test axing hanging over his head and his Middlesex
batting teammates seemingly doing precious little on the field to help ease
the pain - he could have been forgiven for cutting a tragic figure. But,
in again summoning the mental and physical resources to prove himself a cut
above his colleagues, he proved the very antithesis. It was a courageous
display and was full of character, no mean feat considering that he spent
the first half of it watching another succession of batsmen come and go at
the other end. It wasn't until Richard Johnson (52) followed his lead, and
batted with unstinting application to contribute half of a priceless 104
run stand for the eighth wicket, that the formidable right hander finally
attained the support that he deserved.
Full postCrawley, Fairbrother work hard to revive Lancs
An unbroken liaison of fifty-three for the third wicket between a hard working John Crawley and Neil Fairbrother has enabled Lancashire to work its way back into its tense struggle with Yorkshire by the end of day three of this excellent Roses match
Staff and agencies
30-Jul-2000
An unbroken liaison of fifty-three for the third wicket between a hard
working John Crawley and Neil Fairbrother has enabled Lancashire to work
its way back into its tense struggle with Yorkshire by the end of day three
of this excellent Roses match at Headingley.
The Crawley (46*)-Fairbrother (26*) stand, which began with the visitors
still thirty-five runs away from erasing a first innings deficit of 109
runs and accordingly still in serious trouble, enabled the Lancastrians to
end the day in upbeat mood and with a chance at least of leaving Leeds
tomorrow with their ongoing quest for Championship honours largely
undamaged. Decisions by Mike Atherton (17) to follow a Chris Elstub (1/15)
outswinger and Andy Flintoff (25) to drive at a wide ball from Chris
Silverwood (1/34) had looked to be condemning the visitors to a sticky
predicament, but the right hand-left hand combination offered by the third
wicket pair soon redressed the balance. Crawley proved particularly adept
at working the ball through the square leg and mid wicket regions, while a
slightly more defensively inclined Fairbrother accumulated most of his runs
with deft shots into gaps on both sides of the wicket.
Earlier in the day, it had been two notable transformations which had
propelled Yorkshire toward its sizeable first innings advantage. First,
the continuing mid-season metamorphosis of David Byas (81) from opener to
middle order player resulted in possibly his most telling individual
contribution of the summer and then, the wag of an until now impotent
Yorkshire tail lifted the locals to the unanticipated heights of a fourth
batting point. In a brilliant response to the early loss today of chief
strokemaker Darren Lehmann (83), Byas became the chief architect of
Yorkshire's progress toward a total of 376. He was given robust support by
Gary Fellows (46) and Chris Silverwood (34), whose respective ease in
mixing attack with defence belied the general difficulties that had
confronted other batsmen on the opening two days of the match.
Having enjoyed a slice of fortune yesterday when the heavens opened to
disturb a dangerous partnership between Byas and Lehmann, Lancashire had
hit back strongly as play began on the third morning. Without addition to
his overnight score, the latter was trapped on the back foot by Mike
Smethurst (3/101) and adjudged to have been hit in line with his off stump.
Glen Chapple (3/80) then further raised the Lancastrians' hopes of claiming
a first-innings lead with another lbw decision against Richard Blakey (0)
in the following over. Such ambitions were, however, quickly dashed and it
was not until late in the day that matters were at least partially restored.
Full postBrown, Swann plot home team's demise
Notwithstanding the late surrender of its first two second innings wickets, Northamptonshire has continued to defy its underdog status on day two of an absorbing County Championship match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston
Staff and agencies
29-Jul-2000
Notwithstanding the late surrender of its first two second innings wickets,
Northamptonshire has continued to defy its underdog status on day two of an
absorbing County Championship match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.
Buoyed by an inspired display of off spin bowling from Jason Brown and
Graeme Swann, the visitors had forged their way to an overall lead of 126
by the time that stumps were drawn.
It was Brown and Swann's effort in snaring nine Warwickshire wickets
between them - around an innings of steely resolve from Dominic Ostler -
which was the main story of another day of fluctuating fortunes. On a dry
pitch, the spin twins initiated a mid-afternoon collapse which saw their
opponents lose their last seven wickets for a mere sixty-eight runs and
plunge to an eighty-two run first innings deficit in the process. Brown
claimed 5/88 in what is only his fifth game since returning to the team
last month while Swann added lustre to what has already become another fine
all-round game for him with a return of 4/74. Both gained appreciable turn
from the wicket and neither was especially afraid to flight the ball.
Only Ostler's fine 88 held the innings together in retrospect. The young
opener, whose 818 runs make him easily Warwickshire's most productive first
class scorer to this stage of the season, had enjoyed himself yesterday by
holding four catches at slip to help Ashley Giles on his way to a haul of
6/118. But he must have pushed the boundaries of his delight even further
today with his enterprising innings. He indulged himself early on with
some beautifully timed drives through the off side before raising the tempo
even further with some punishing attacking shots through the middle stages
of his 192-ball stay. It was a measure of his centrality to his team's
cause that its innings subsided almost completely once he once he was
caught by Adrian Rollins at short-leg off Brown with the score at 188.
Full postBowler holds off Durham's charge
A stern half century from Peter Bowler (62*) has helped extricate Somerset from peril late on day two of his team's County Championship match against Durham at Chester-le-Street
Staff and agencies
29-Jul-2000
A stern half century from Peter Bowler (62*) has helped extricate Somerset
from peril late on day two of his team's County Championship match against
Durham at Chester-le-Street. Together with Graham Rose (15*), Bowler added
an unbeaten 56 for the seventh wicket to steer Somerset to relative safety
at 144/6 - in response to Durham's 292 - by the close.
Bowler's steadiness in a crisis has often seen him mount rescue acts for
the men from the south-west, but even he must have felt a certain sense of
frustration at his teammates' general inability to survive on a perfectly
reasonable pitch this time around. As the score plummeted toward 88/6,
Jamie Cox (5) lost his leg stump to a skidding ball from Melvyn Betts;
Marcus Trescothick (17) was bowled by one that Simon Brown seamed back into
him; the labouring Piran Holloway (14) was trapped on the crease by John
Wood; Neil Killeen found the edge of the bat of Keith Parsons (1); Rob
Turner (3) failed to ground his push off bat and pad to short cover; and
then Ian Blackwell (10) became Wood's third victim when wicketkeeper Gary
Pratt clutched a superb left handed catch. It was not a particularly
edifying performance and Rose's relative comfort in surviving until stumps,
while a badly needed development, said as much.
Earlier in the day, Durham had added seventy-seven runs to its own score
before last man Brown fell in the opening over after lunch. Typically
wholehearted commitment to the cause from both Brown (10) and Betts (33*)
had seen a valuable thirty-three runs added for the last wicket of an
innings which had threatened to subside quickly after the long vigil of
opener Jon Lewis (115) had ended only a matter of minutes into the day.
Full postTufnell renews Middlesex's ambitions
With the end result of a modest first innings lead secured, Sussex spent much of this day doing little more than trying to grind and claw its way on top of Middlesex in the teams' willing County Championship struggle at Southgate
Staff and agencies
29-Jul-2000
With the end result of a modest first innings lead secured, Sussex spent
much of this day doing little more than trying to grind and claw its way on
top of Middlesex in the teams' willing County Championship struggle at
Southgate. Their slightly more resourceful opponents, meanwhile, used the
occasion first to prevent this deficit from extending to hefty proportions
and then to launch a spirited second innings assault on the back of the
efforts of its best two batsmen.
Aside from three forceful cuts from Michael Bevan in the opening over of
the day, this was predominantly an occasion for the steady accumulation of
runs. The ray of hope offered by the Australian was dimmed in the second
over when Phil Tufnell (4/88) lured him out of his crease to have him
stumped; ended with Middlesex grimly preserving its remaining seven second
innings wickets; and generally offered little in the way of attacking
shotmaking in between.
For an action-filled day to have eventuated, the best prospects lay in the
emergence of substantial contributions to the Sussex first innings from
either of their two premier batsmen, Bevan and Chris Adams. That pair
scored just thirty runs between them though, they were both gone early in
proceedings, and the die was cast. The pitch, and the probing turn and
flight extracted by Tufnell in foty tight overs, rendered scoring difficult
and Sussex's batsmen in particular exhibited little willingness to dominate
at any stage. Robin Martin-Jenkins (44) and Tony Cottey (42) emerged as
their mainstays in a generally disappointing performance.
Full postLehmann lights up Leeds
Rain has ruined the scene at Headingley just when an intriguing conclusion to the second day's play looked in prospect between the home team and Lancashire in this vital Championship fixture
Staff and agencies
29-Jul-2000
Rain has ruined the scene at Headingley just when an intriguing conclusion to the second day's play looked in prospect between the home team and Lancashire in this vital Championship fixture. A relatively brief, but nonetheless torrential, deluge shortly before the scheduled tea break sent the players scurrying from the field - with the Yorkshiremen well placed at 203/4 in reply to their opponents' 267 - and there was never a realistic chance of their return.
In such play as was possible, it was Darren Lehmann who again lit up the dull vista. In marked contrast to most of the batting which has gone before him in this game, the South Australian was the one Yorkshire player who successfully allied the need for restraint on a difficult pitch with the ability to punish the loose ball. Even more impressive than the characteristically bruising repertoire of shots he included in his unbeaten 83 today was his capacity to make batting look easy, without offering a chance, on a pitch which has caused players to struggle all around him. His sparkling shotmaking, which left him seventeen runs short of his third century of the season and fifty-six short of reaching 1,000 runs in the championship this year, blossomed the further that his unbroken stand of ninety-five for the fifth wicket with captain, David Byas (31*), progressed.
As for Byas himself, he was frustrated at the early finish but delighted by his team's fightback: "This is a huge match for us (as it is for Lancashire too) and we need to press on tomorrow.
"The loss of the final session to rain was a disappointment but we are in a
position where we can go on and take a substantial lead and hopefully put
Lancashire under some pressure in their second innings."
Full postMcGrath the difference as Gloucestershire sinks
Another (overcast) day, another spectacular clatter of wickets at New Road
Staff and agencies
29-Jul-2000
Another (overcast) day, another spectacular clatter of wickets at New Road.
Even allowing for the intervention of further showers, fourteen more
figures perished today as Worcestershire and Gloucestershire's 'batsmen'
did their best to outdo one another in seeing just how rapidly they could
fritter their innings away. As it was, though, the former lost the battle
for mediocrity and their team now holds an overall lead of 229 runs with
one more second innings scalp in tact.
Again it seemed that the batting calamities were no fault of the pitch
alone: a view certainly shared by ECB pitch liaison officer Phil Sharpe,
who will not be initiating action against the club on account of the
quality or otherwise of the surface. For however lopsided the contest
between bat and ball has become in this match, it was indeed more the
combination of some fine bowling and some equally poor strokeplay that was
responsible. There was a suggestion too that the dull, bleak conditions in
which the day's play began also loomed large; a state of affairs about
which Glenn McGrath was hardly complaining. He used the bowler-friendly
weather to rise to his destructive best and captured all but three wickets
in the course of a demolition job that saw Gloucestershire slide
horrendously to 87. Believeable or not after their own ineptitude of the
day before, the locals had somehow seized a first innings lead of eleven
runs in the process. McGrath's rival Australian, Ian Harvey, admirably
tried to stop the rot with a plucky 27 - the highest score mustered by
anyone in the match until then - but even his ability to occasionally
pierce a tightly set attacking field became akin to an exercise in trying
to pile up sandbags in the face of a tidal wave.
McGrath was methodical, hostile and relentless. It is difficult to
comprehend the notion that he hasn't taken a five wicket haul on this
ground at any stage previously in the Championship season but then that has
probably had as much to do as anything with the loss of substantial
portions of a number of games to poor weather. In any case, his 7/29 here
- the third best figures of his brilliant first class career - redressed
the situation eloquently.
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