FORMER England pace bow-ler Kabir Ali demolished a shell-shocked Lancashire side with a fabulous eight-wicket haul on the first day of Worcestershire's County Championship match at Old Trafford.

The 26-year-old recorded career-best figures of 8-50 to roll Lancashire over for just 161 an hour after lunch. His previous best was 8-53 against Yorkshire in 2003.

Current England Test standby bowler James Anderson then replied with an early wicket of Phil Jaques before the visitors moved to 164-4 at the close.

Kabir, who was trying to lift his side from the bottom spot in LV Division One, claimed the first three wickets of Mark Chilton, Paul Horton and Loye, reducing the hosts to 24-3. All after captain Chilton had won the toss and surprisingly elected to bat on a dismal day that seemed tailor-made for bowling.

Roger Sillence, 2-48, then chipped in with the wickets of Steven Croft (21) and Australian World Cup winner Brad Hodge.

Hodge top scored with 49 but was caught at first slip by Ben Smith after he had been stuck one short of his half-century for nearly twenty minutes.

It was all then left for Kabir to clear up the rest of the Lancashire innings, with only wicketkeeper Luke Sutton putting up any real resistance with 25.

After removing Sutton and Glen Chapple he got Dominic Cork and Anderson, bowled with the middle stump out of the ground, in two successive balls. Sajid Mahmood hit a couple of boundaries off Sillence, and prevented a Kabir hat-trick, but the innings ended when he was caught be-hind by Steven Davies for 13.

Worcestershire captain Vikram Solanki then backed up the good work in the field by adding a valuable 54, while helping to compile a second wicket partnership of 52 with opener Stephen Moore.

After Anderson had forced Australian left-hander Jaques to chop on, he was backed up by a fine spell from Mahmood, who only took the one wicket of Moore but his tight and speedy spell of nine overs for 18 certainly deserved more.

Cork picked up the third wicket of the Worcestershire innings - that of Ben Smith - before Sri Lankan spin king Muttiah Muralitharan finally ended Solanki's resistance.

Lancashire have been told by England that they will have to release Anderson so he can travel to London in case he is needed to play against the West Indies at Lord's. Lancashire will be permitted to use a substitute player.