Anthony McGrath is in the form of his life at the moment as he so clearly showed last weekend when he picked up 270 runs in two innings as well as achieving his best first class bowling figures of 5-39.

Unfortunately, McGrath's contributions were still not enough to lead Yorkshire to victory in either the Championship match against Derbyshire or the totesport League game with Middlesex Crusaders at Southgate but his own efforts could not be faulted.

England have trimmed their initial list of 30 for the ICC Champions Trophy to 14 with McGrath

in the squad.

After his magnificent 174 taken off Derbyshire's attack, he insisted he was thinking solely about Yorkshire.

McGrath (pictured left) did right to put England to the back of his mind because he has been poorly treated over the past few months and has certainly not been given a fair chance to prove himself in the one-day set-up.

Even though England kept faith with him there is still no guarantee that they will use him regularly in the ICC Trophy which takes place in September.

To pick him and not play him would not only be a huge disappointment for McGrath but would also be a gigantic blow for Yorkshire who badly need his runs in the finale to the season as they seek promotion in the Championship and the totesport League.

It was director of cricket David Byas's hope at the start of the season that Yorkshire would go up in both competitions but now they face the prospect missing out all round unless McGrath can receive some decent support with both bat and ball.

In his last eight Championship knocks, McGrath has compiled 484 runs and only Matthew Wood has shown similar consistency, leaving the pair of them with far too much work to do.

McGrath has had loads of talent ever since the days when he was a boy wonder at Bankfoot but it is fair to say that he under-achieved at the start of his Yorkshire career and lacked consistency.

Since selected to play for England, however, McGrath has matured into a much more careful batsman who remains very good to watch. At 28 years of age, he still has every chance of going on to become one of Yorkshire's heaviest scorers of recent times.

It will come as a surprise that he has yet to complete 1,000 runs in a season but he could well pass that milestone this time if England don't grab him.

So far, McGrath has hit 565 Championship runs which leaves him requiring a further 435 from six matches which is well within his compass.

He will be relieved that four of the six matches are away from Headingley because McGrath suffers more than most from the uneven bounce on pitches at headquarters and it is no coincidence that only three of his 11 first-class centuries have been made there.

Whatever fate has in store for McGrath during the remainder of the season, he can always take pleasure from knowing that his 5-39 followed by his 174 against Derbyshire was one of the great all-round performances in Yorkshire's history.

There have only been seven instances of a century and ten wickets in a match and on the other occasions when a player has scored a century and taken five wickets in an innings only two have managed a bigger knock than McGrath.

George Hirst weighed in with 232 not out and 5-43 against Surrey at The Oval in 1905 and Wilfred Rhodes scored 176 and took 5-60 against Nottinghamshire at Harrogate in 1912.

The last player before McGrath to score a century and take five wickets was Craig White with 108 not out and 5-40 v Essex at Headingley ten years' ago and the one before that was Chris Old with 100 not out and 5-47 in the Roses match at Old Trafford in 1978.

Updated: 10:02 Saturday, August 07, 2004