da 888casino： Fast bowler Glenn McGrath has returned the best match figures of his careerto lead Worcestershire to a 52 run success over Gloucestershire at New Roadand guide it back to the top of Division Two of the County Championship
da bet7： Staff and agencies30-Jul-2000Fast bowler Glenn McGrath has returned the best match figures of his careerto lead Worcestershire to a 52 run success over Gloucestershire at New Roadand guide it back to the top of Division Two of the County Championship.The Australian paceman paired a second innings return of 3/40 withyesterday’s haul of 7/29 to claim overall figures of 10/69 and put theskids under a Gloucestershire side that never seriously looked likesuccessfully pursuing a target of 237 to win. Only five days before he isdue to fly back to Melbourne to represent his nation in three one-dayinternationals against South Africa, McGrath could hardly have exemplifiedhis worth to his adopted team any more effectively than with the fifthreturn 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 forthe day permitting him the chance to equal his own county record of nine ina game.Having stumbled disastrously to 10/3 only a short time into the morningsession, there was no real way out of the abyss for the visitors. IanHarvey, who had earlier wrapped up Worcestershire’s second innings at 225with a ninth wicket for the match of his own, raised 25 in anotheradmirable attempt at resistance. His endeavours were assisted by ImranMohammed’s battling 15; other than that, though, there was precious littleelse to recommend about the upper and middle order’s display. After beingjoined at the hopeless scoreline of 69/6 shortly after lunch, Jeremy Snape(43) and Jack Russell (18) then forged the equal best partnership of thematch – their skilful association of 63 runs for the seventh wicket sparingtheir team the ignominy of failing to reach three figures in either oftheir innings. But it was simply a matter of time before they fell, andthe match soon reached the point of inevitability once they had departedwithin three runs of one another in mid-afternoon.
