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.

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.

Having stumbled disastrously to 10/3 only a short time into the morning session, there was no real way out of the abyss for the visitors. Ian Harvey, who had earlier wrapped up Worcestershire's second innings at 225 with a ninth wicket for the match of his own, raised 25 in another admirable attempt at resistance. His endeavours were assisted by Imran Mohammed's battling 15; other than that, though, there was precious little else to recommend about the upper and middle order's display. After being joined at the hopeless scoreline of 69/6 shortly after lunch, Jeremy Snape (43) and Jack Russell (18) then forged the equal best partnership of the match - their skilful association of 63 runs for the seventh wicket sparing their team the ignominy of failing to reach three figures in either of their innings. But it was simply a matter of time before they fell, and the match soon reached the point of inevitability once they had departed within three runs of one another in mid-afternoon.