Pollock provides a shining example

Warwickshire 206-7d v Leicestershire 370 & 154Warwickshire win by 144 runs

Warwickshire, desperate to climb off the bottom of the First Division table and give themselves a chance of avoiding relegation, needed quick runs in the morning followed by quick wickets in the afternoon. Shaun Pollock, subdued prior to this match with only seven Championship wickets, duly obliged with both and Warwickshire registered their first win and some hope.

His 65 off 83 balls set up a run chase that afforded both sides a reasonable chance of victory. Then a miserly opening spell effectively shut Leic-estershire out of the match. Not content, he returned to break an obstinate middle-order partnership with the wicket of Vince Wells. His match figures were 38.2-17-59-6 which, considering Leicestershire scored over 520 runs, are absolutely extraordinary.

Whether he has voluntarily reduced his pace a little or the huge workload he manfully shoulders for South Africa is to blame, no one can accuse him of anything less than pinpoint accuracy. His first 10 overs conceded no runs and claimed the wickets of openers Trevor Ward and Iain Sutcliffe. These were not gifted but grafted for by the discipline of trying to hit the top of off stump, accuracy that was more remarkable for the batsmen being a left and right-hand combination.

His action is as grooved and smooth as a Swiss timepiece, and his mentality begrudging rather than gambling, but it was still an exemplary master-class display of fast-medium seam bowling that deserved a bigger audience.

Neil Carter then showed his illustrious senior partner that wickets can just as easily be bought as earned by fooling Darren Maddy with the old three-card trick. Wide long-hop, four; even wider long-hop, four; straight, lifting good ball, edge.

The seamers could rotate from their favoured Pavilion End as Neil Smith's toiling rather than teasing off-spin was effective from the City End. But even as wickets fell, Warwickshire looked hampered by the ever-dwindling overs. Until Pollock got Wells. Phil DeFreitas and Jamie Grove succumbed in quick succession to Smith's arm ball, as Darren Stevens and Grant Flower had, and the win became a formality as Smith completed a five-wicket haul.

It was definitely needed as the club was in danger of a severe bout of navel gazing and divisive mutterings that would have left morale nearly as low as their position. Even if they win a couple more and avoid the drop, it appears that a change of personnel is likely in September and the loudest mutterings concern the dir-ector of cricket, Bob Woolmer.