PETER Martin maintained his purple patch to earn Lancashire vital bonus points at Worcester.

The 30-year-old Lancashire seamer produced an impressive analysis of 24-8-52-5 to increase his haul of championship victims to 36 with three matches left. Twenty two of those successes have come in the last four matches at an average of 16.

Martin's record looks positively puny compared to the likes of Worcester's Alamgir Sheriyar who claimed his 83rd wicket by uprooting Mark Chilton's middle stump when Lancashire launched their innings.

But it has to be taken into context. Muttiah Muralitharan's dominance and the weather which has either wrecked or bitten deeply into four matches have restricted Lancashire's seam attack this summer. If Martin can finish around the 50 mark he can look back on his campaign with some satisfaction.

Sheriyar has thrived on the seamer friendly pitches at New Road, and so did Martin after John Crawley had won the toss.

With half the game lost to rain already, Lancashire were looking for bonus points to consolidate their surge into the top four, even though chances of their sixth win on the trot looked remote. Martin began by removing Philip Weston with his fourth ball, and he grabbed two wickets in four balls. Later he came back to collect another two wickets, and Andy Flintoff's 3-27 helped to polish off Worcester for 209. Lancashire lost Chilton and nightwatchman Richard Green just before the close and Atherton was soon to follow today to leave the reply on 25-3.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.