Date-stamped : 17 Aug96 - 10:29 County Championship 1996 Warwickshire v Glamorgan Edgbaston, Birmingham 15, 16, 17, 19 August 1996 ====>REPORT (Day 1, 15 August 1996) Pollock surge for Warwicks By Geoffrey Dean at Edgbaston FOR Glamorgan, yesterday began so promisingly but ended so abysmally. By contrast, Warwickshire, let off the hook before lunch, enjoyed a triumphant final session when Shaun Pollock and Keith Piper extended their seventh-wicket stand to 180 at 4.5 runs an over. Pollock would be the first to admit that his second championship hundred, off 164 balls, was greatly facilitated by some dread- ful bowling. Too much was short and too much was directed at leg stump. The day`s tally of 57 fours is a telling statistic. Pollock hit 16 of them as well as a six off a long-hop. Glamorgan should have had four or five wickets in the first hour, when the ball seamed all over the place on a pitch that started damp but played well later. They got two in that time but Dominic Ostler was dropped at second slip when one off Steve Watkin. Apart from Watkin`s first spell, the seam bowling was desperately or- dinary. Robert Croft, under observation by England selec- tor David Lloyd for the third successive match, bowled well. He out-thought the impressive Nick Knight to have him caught off a thick edge; had Trevor Penney taken at short leg off one that turned, and laughed in delight when he bowled Dougie Brown with a nice piece of deception. Pollock was matched stroke for stroke by Piper. His 82 came off just 124 balls and was his first 50 of the season. ====>REPORT (Day 2, 16 August 1996) Giles discovers the way to move By Geoffrey Dean at Edgbaston GLAMORGAN, after batting as badly as they had bowled, face almost certain defeat after following on. On a pitch offering minimal lateral movement, and only occasional turn, the visitors lost their last eight wickets for 55 runs. It was pleasing for Warwickshire that their spinners should take nine wickets in conditions that did not real- ly as- sist them. Ashley Giles returned his second six-wicket haul in successive innings, lifting his total of victims for the season to 45 at an average of 23. Giles turned the odd ball but kept it tight. Glamorgan`s top order succumbed to the pressure he imposed with two bat- pad fielders, and the tail were suckers for his quick- er ball. He should know how to bowl it, having been a seamer in his Surrey youth team days. Giles took a wicket with his first ball when Hugh Morris edged tentatively to slip. His second victim, Matthew Maynard, was his most important for the Glamorgan captain had looked in com- mand while hitting 13 boundaries in his rapid 69. He was smartly stumped after lifting his back leg. Thereafter it was a procession. Tony Cottey fell to a bat-pad catch; Adrian Dale and Robert Croft prod- ded at Neil Smith to be caught at slip and Ottis Gibson was hit on the boot well before he had realised it was Giles`s quicker ball. Steve James, who had played without any fuss in his 177-ball 90, which included a memorable pull through midwicket for four off Shaun Pollock, was ninth out when he was caught at short leg. He was back at the wicket a few minutes later, after the follow-on was enforced, and soon saw Morris edge a drive to second slip. The bowler, Tim Munton, had earlier removed David Hemp in the first innings with a good one that bounced, though his feet were nowhere. At the start of the day Pollock had continued to play some fine attacking shots off front and back foot on his way to a career-best 150 not out in nearly five hours. ====>REPORT (Day 3, 17 August 1996) All change as Maynard and James hit out Geoffrey Dean at Edgbaston GAMES can change course quite unexpectedly when Matthew Maynard bats as he did yesterday. A Warwickshire victory by, or at least soon after, tea seemed a near certainty at the start of play, but thanks to Maynard`s fabulous 95 and Steve James`s admirably solid fifth first-class century of the season, Glamorgan put up a rous- ing fight, even if defeat still appeared very likely. Having followed on, they were 44 ahead with four wickets remaining. In a sense, the situation was tailor-made for May- nard. Glamorgan needed 400-plus runs to give themselves any chance, and, on a turning pitch against two quality spinners, a Maynard contribution was an absolute prerequisite. Watched by his Benefit Committee chairman Paul Russell, whose brother manages Oasis, Maynard batted with the same exhi- larating freedom of spirit as the Mancunian rockers. He faced only 102 balls, clobbering 13 of them for four and four for six. It was magnificent to watch, if not for Warwickshire, who were getting desperate just when Maynard, as he is not unk- nown to do, got himself out. He fell to Ashley Giles, who has emerged as the most promising young left-arm spinner in the country. He only came into the side in the second half of last season, and yet, at the time of writing, had boosted his wickets tally for this summer to 48 at the impres- sively low average of 23. Being tall, 6 ft 3 in, he gets bounce. He also has fine control and is a tweaker of the ball as opposed to a roller. He may lack the flight variation and guile of Phil Tufnell, still the best spinner in the country in the view of most professionals, but he has an excellent quicker ball. This is cleverly dis- guised and bowled at not far off medium pace - in other words, much faster than the typical spinner`s quicker ball. The Giles version knocks over tail-enders, notably Glamorgan`s in this match. Also, in the view of Hugh Morris, it has the ef- fect of preventing top-order batsmen getting down the pitch. "You`re always looking for it," says Morris, "as he bowls it about every other over. It makes you think twice about using your feet as you could be beaten for pace." Maynard and James have pummelled 195 in only 33 overs togeth- er and it had gone very quiet out in the mid- dle when Giles made the breakthrough. Maynard swept, but un- done by a little bit of extra bounce, top-edged to midwicket. All credit to the bowler, however, in the middle of such an onslaught. Warwickshire captain Tim Munton is hoping Giles will have earned himself a place on the England A tour this winter. "I think he should go, as he`s the best young left-arm spinner I`ve seen in county cricket. He`s a very useful batsman too - he used to go in at No 5 in the Second XI - but we bat down so far that he doesn`t get in above nine normally." Surrey have long rued the fact that they let Giles slip through the net. He played for their youth teams as a seamer and then their Second XI in 1990/91 as a spinner, after a back injury forced him to abandon pace. But with Keith Medlycott and Neil Kendrick on the staff at the Oval at the time, Giles, to his great disappointment, was not taken on. He wrote to several counties in the winter of 1991/92, and Warwickshire, at the end of his second indoor net, signed him on the spot. Even then, without Dicky Davis`s written request to leave Warwickshire in mid-July last year (and his subse- quent depar- ture at the end of the season), Giles might not have got his chance. Davis was concerned that he would not play much first- team cricket, but, ironically, Warwickshire have played two spinners in all but two championship matches this summer. Giles has missed only one game - at Lord`s in June. ====>REPORT (Day 4, 19 August 1996) Giles gives Glamorgan the slip By Geoffrey Dean at Edgbaston WARWICKSHIRE`S title aspirations would have evaporated had they lost this one, which they nearly did yesterday. But the winning habit in 50-50 situations that they have learnt in the last three years proved all-important against a Glamorgan side not quite sure how to finish off their wounded prey. Ashley Giles joined Dougie Brown with 23 wanted and two wick- ets remaining on a slow turner and immediately edged Steve Watkin straight through the vacant third- slip position. A catch then would have left Warwickshire 116 for nine and put their last man, Tim Munton, under severe pressure. He admit- ted afterwards he was waiting with "sweaty palms". The opportunity was gone and Brown, using his feet well to counter Robert Croft, took Warwickshire closer. Giles nudged singles and flayed Watkin for four to the unpro- tected cover boundary. Finally, with four wanted, and nobody back straight, Brown danced down the pitch and hit Croft to long off. Some rather slapdash batting against the new ball resulted in Warwickshire`s collapse to 82 for six. Nick Knight and Wasim Khan had played on following indeterminate shots before Watkin had Dominic Ostler and Trevor Penney lbw with off-cutters. Michael Powell then drove loosely to be caught and bowled, and Shaun Pollock edged to first slip. But the pressure was immediately released when a wayward Ottis Gibson was hit for four fours in eight balls, while Keith Piper made a crucial 17 off 10. Croft beat Piper with a good off-break and then had Neil Smith well taken at short leg. But, bowling to a leg-side field, he could not shift the admirably composed Brown and Giles. Nor could Watkin after bowling an excellent opening spell of 9-3-21- 3. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by Ravi (sista@*.latech.edu)