da bwin： Another (overcast) day, another spectacular clatter of wickets at New Road
Staff and agencies29-Jul-2000Another (overcast) day, another spectacular clatter of wickets at New Road.Even allowing for the intervention of further showers, fourteen morefigures perished today as Worcestershire and Gloucestershire’s ‘batsmen’did their best to outdo one another in seeing just how rapidly they couldfritter their innings away. As it was, though, the former lost the battlefor mediocrity and their team now holds an overall lead of 229 runs withone more second innings scalp in tact.Again it seemed that the batting calamities were no fault of the pitchalone: a view certainly shared by ECB pitch liaison officer Phil Sharpe,who will not be initiating action against the club on account of thequality or otherwise of the surface. For however lopsided the contestbetween bat and ball has become in this match, it was indeed more thecombination of some fine bowling and some equally poor strokeplay that wasresponsible. There was a suggestion too that the dull, bleak conditions inwhich the day’s play began also loomed large; a state of affairs aboutwhich Glenn McGrath was hardly complaining. He used the bowler-friendlyweather to rise to his destructive best and captured all but three wicketsin the course of a demolition job that saw Gloucestershire slidehorrendously to 87. Believeable or not after their own ineptitude of theday before, the locals had somehow seized a first innings lead of elevenruns in the process. McGrath’s rival Australian, Ian Harvey, admirablytried to stop the rot with a plucky 27 – the highest score mustered byanyone in the match until then – but even his ability to occasionallypierce a tightly set attacking field became akin to an exercise in tryingto pile up sandbags in the face of a tidal wave.McGrath was methodical, hostile and relentless. It is difficult tocomprehend the notion that he hasn’t taken a five wicket haul on thisground at any stage previously in the Championship season but then that hasprobably had as much to do as anything with the loss of substantialportions 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 – redressedthe situation eloquently.It did not take long for the Gloucestershire seamers to begin returning thecompliment even if their inability to make the ball lift off the pitch aseasily as McGrath allowed Worcestershire’s top and middle order slightlymore respite. Harvey (5/95) followed up with five wickets of his own onthe back of his trademark variations of pace. But Vikram Solanki found amethod of countering the apparent impossibility of occupying the crease forlong enough to make a productive contribution – by crashing his way to 41off only thirty-two deliveries – and the home team’s lead was soonbillowing beyond the positively gigantic figure of one hundred. Solanki’seffort suddenly made batting look easier, and David Leatherdale (56), SteveRhodes (50*) and Paul Pollard (20) all profited handsomely from being shownthe value of positive thinking.