June 2009 Archives

Warwickshire 329 for 7 (87 overs). Troughton 49, Woakes 8.

Carter holed out to long leg for 47 from 26 balls.

Three crows have just soared over the ground.

Two swans made stately progress across earlier.

I thought I saw a Hawaiian dark-rumped petrel just after tea but I must have been mistaken because they have been extinct in Britain for some time.

Still no sign of the pied wagtail.

Warwickshire 304 for 6 (83 overs). Troughton 41, Carter 38.

Carter, on 4, was badly dropped by Wagh at long leg. The 50 partnership arrived in 7 overs. Carter is bludgeoning away but Troughton is playing the finest shots. What a player to watch when he is in top form.

Wagh has been moved to cover.

Bizarrely, Nottinghamshire took the spinner off not long after Carter came in.

Warwickshire 242 for 6 (75 overs). Troughton 21, Carter 0.

Ambrose attempted to get off the mark from his 13th ball, from Patel, but chipped it straight to extra cover.

Barker's maiden championship innings brought a blob after he played on to Fletcher. Former Blackburn Rovers striker castled by former Notts County defender.

Warwickshire 221 for 3 (66 overs). Trott 37, Troughton 0.

Bell, on 60 from 129 balls, perished in a manner that will have his critics nodding knowingly. Having batted serenely, he leaned back to cut a Patel long-hop, was unbalanced in the shot, and lifted the ball to point where Wagh took a diving catch with two hands.

Tea: Warwickshire 220 for 2 (64 overs). Bell 60, Trott 37.

Bell reached 50 from 92 balls with his eighth boundary. Trott has just driven Patil expansively to the Hollies boundary.

Bell and Trott have so far added 77. Can they mount a challenge for Warwickshire's record third-wicket partnership against Nottinghamshire - the 182 by MJK Smith and Rohan Kanhai at Trent Bridge in 1970?

Why do car manufacturers manufacture cars that can go many miles per hour over the legal limit?

Warwickshire 147 for 2 (46 overs). Bell 26, Trott 8.

Westwood (73, 133 balls, 14 fours) flashed hard at Fletcher and edged to second slip where Jefferson took the catch at the second attempt. One of the smaller cricketers caught by one of the larger.

Trott hit two of his first three balls faced to the perimeter rope.

Warwickshire 130 for 1 (43 overs). Westwood 65, Bell 21.

This is a good effort from Warwickshire because the seamers have got a bit out of the pitch and a few balls have lifted past the outside-edge.

Westwood reached his first 50 of the season with his tenth four, punched through the covers in the first over after lunch, his 91st ball faced.

Bell scored four from his first 42 balls faced then pulled, drove and chopped his 43rd, 44th and 47th balls for boundaries.

No pied wagtail in evidence. Just one flurry of geese honking far in the distance at 2.05pm. The only evidence of bird life - the sizeable deposit which has been on the press-box window for a month.

Lunch: Warwickshire 94 for 1 (31 overs). Westwood 49, Bell 3

Westwood has batted well and got to within a run of his first half-century of the season ten minutes before lunch but good bowling then kept him on the brink of that milestone and he will remain on said threshold all the way through luncheon.

Sunny spells.

Warwickshire 91 for 1 (26 overs). Westwood 49, Bell 0.

Frost, on 37, leaned forward to Ealham and edged to Chris Read.

Amusing snippet from a journalist who attended Edgbaston yesterday even though play was sure to be abandoned for the day. After the official call-off, he headed back towards the car-park and paused in the deserted concourse behind the Wyatt Strand for a cigarette.

"There was not a soul in sight," he reports. "Not a single person - except for one steward. And he came over and told me to put my fag out because it was a non-smoking area."

Rules are rules!

Warwickshire 59 for 0 (16 overs). Westwood 32, Frost 24.

Shrek has got one or two to lift and there has been some zip with the new ball but the batsmen have dealt with it capably. A cover-drive from Frost and a back-foot smash through the covers by Westwood the shots of the day, nay the match, so far.

A productive opening stand is welcome. In the championship last season, the Bears' first wicket added, on average, 19 runs - the eighth most productive wicket of their ten wickets. Only the sixth (18.7) and the tenth (7.9) were less productive.