Warwicks high-scoring hopes frustrated

Ian Harvey is determined to shed his reputation as a specialist one-day player and become highly regarded in all forms of cricket.

The Gloucestershire all-rounder is particularly renowned for his ability to bowl tightly at the death in limited overs games, a skill which has helped his county win three successive Lord's final.

But when he puts his mind to it Harvey can be pretty economical in four-day cricket too, as Warwickshire found to their cost after winning the toss in excellent batting conditions at Cheltenham.

The visitors must have been rubbing their hands, bearing in mind Northants' 500-plus total at the same venue last week and the fact that Gloucestershire had lost their last three Championship games at the College Ground.

But the home bowlers had been given a gee-up by coach John Bracewell and Warwickshire had to fight for virtually every run before being bowled out for a disappointing 260 with the last ball of the day.

Harvey returned Championship-best figures of 5-29 from 23 overs and received particularly good support from Ben Gannon (3-62) and Martyn Ball (2-53).

But all the Gloucestershire bowlers performed with credit from the start when Gannon and Jon Lewis saw to it that only 14 runs came from the first 11 overs by showing good control with the new ball.

The home side had surprisingly chosen to leave out Mike Smith and play an extra batsman in Imran Mohammed. Soon Harvey was ensuring the decision would be vindicated.

Coming on as first change, he first succeeded in tying down the batsmen, sending down nine overs before lunch at a cost of just three runs and removing opener Michael Powell for 25.

The second session brought the Australian more reward with 3-14 from eight overs as Warwickshire tumbled from 107-1 to 164-5.

Harvey made liberal use of the short ball to deter batsmen from playing forward and looked quite sharp at times on a true pitch. He was backed up by good fielding and scoring never looked easy.

Mark Wagh (59) and David Hemp (58) both had to graft for their runs. For Hemp it was his first Championship half century since the second week in May and the innings occupied more than three hours.

Opener Wagh took 115 balls to reach his fifty, showing commendable application to try and lay the foundation for a big total. Sadly for Warwickshire, his concentration was not matched by the later batsmen. After Hemp and a confident Ashley Giles, whose 37 included a six and 5 fours, had helped take the score to 223-5 the innings folded for just 37 more runs.

Skipper Neil Smith was among those to sacrifice his wicket to a rash shot, skying off-spinner Ball to Chris Taylor, while Hemp's effort ended with a catch by the same fielder at long-leg when he top-edged a hook off Gannon. Allan Donald looked none too pleased to be adjudged caught off bat and pad to give Ball his second wicket and the smiles were on Gloucestershire faces when the players left the field.