August 2009 Archives

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

I'm afraid the blog has to go to sleep for a while as, due to a broken arm diagnosed in A & E at Scarborough Hospital at 12.45am today, I cannot write, type or drive for some weeks. (It has taken an age to tap out even leave this short note with my left mitt).

I knew the seagulls would get me in the end.

Close: Warwickshire 111 for 2 (39 overs). Westwood 58, Bell 4.

Good, solid effort from the skipper, with that one appalling reprieve by Brophy.

2.56pm, I think, will be the time of the first ribald shout of "Declare, declare..." from the Popular Bank tomorrow as it dawns on Yorkshire's prickly faithful that the Bears might just be contemplating blocking the proverbial out of it.

Warwickshire 98 for 2 (34 overs). Westwood 51, Bell 0.

An opening stand of 96 was ended when Botha, on 33, chopped a long hop from McGrath to gully and departed aghast at such a loose end to a good, grafting innings.

Tahir, sent in as nightwatchman, offered no stroke to a Shahzad in-ducker and lost his off peg for a blob.

Westwood's 50 came from 103 balls with eight fours. Another wicket tonight and Yorkshire will start fancying their chances again.

Warwickshire 51 for 0 (19 overs). Westwood 22, Botha 22.

Solid stuff from the openers. This strange, lurching, highly entertaining match has entered a quiet phase.

A reporter who has been attending matches at Scarborough for 40 years has just observed: "In all the years I have never seen so many people standing watching outside the hospitality tents on a Friday afternoon."

Strange really. You wouldn't think the sight of Westwood and Botha nurdling 50 from 19 overs is one to empty bars.

Warwickshire 22 for 0 (8 overs). Westwood 14, Botha 4.

Cricket has just resumed after a 20-minute delay caused by three spots of rain which fell just outside Bridlington.

Sun shining strongly now and play will, weather permitting, go on until 6.30pm. Warwickshire must make the game safe by getting through with very few wickets down.

Westwood, on 12, edged the second ball after the resumption, from Hoggard, but Brophy grassed a straightforward catch.

If Botha gets to 6 he will reach 4,000 first-class runs.

Tea (early due to a shower of rain): Warwickshire 16 for 0 (5 overs). Westwood 8, Botha 4.

I predict that Westwood will score a century.

Yorkshire 328 all out. Wainwright 102 not out. 24 no balls.

Like Warwickshire, Yorkshire recovered from 53 for 4 to pass 300. The force very much with Yorkshire now, the Bears will have to bat very well when they get back in.

Wainwright received a fully-deserved standing ovation (including from the many Bears fans present) when he reached his century. It is his second first-class century. The first, at Hove last September, saved his team from relegation. Who knows, this could do the same?

Hoggard fell for 18, gloving Tahir to the wicket-keeper in the first over with the new ball.

Kruis clouted Sreesanth rather disrespectfully back over his head for four and taken 16, including a mighty six over cow-corner, off a Tahir over. He thrashed 30 then skied Sreesanth behind him and Ambrose took a superb catch running and diving back.

Sreesanth ends up with a five-for -15.2-3-93-5. Five crucial, potentially season-defining sessions of cricket lie ahead.

Yorkshire 290 for 8 (81 overs). Wainwright 94, Hoggard 18.

We are on the cusp of history - the first instance in first-class cricket, surely, of a player scoring a championship century scored by a scorer of the same name.

Yorkshire 244 for 8 (71 overs). Wainwright 66, Hoggard 0.

Botha gets one to turn, Brophy pushes forward and edges to Clarke at slip. Botha's first championship wicket since July 18 ends an eighth-wicket partnership of 144 in 35 overs.

Woakes is plugging away at the Trafalgar Square End.

In a match of wicket-flurries, how quickly Warwickshire can polish off the Yorkshire tail could be very significant.

LUNCH: Yorkshire 239 for 7 (66 overs). Brophy 83, Wainwright 64.

What a tatty session by Warwickshire. After playing so well yesterday, where did that come from? Flat, uninspired and dilatory with the over-rate delivering just 30 in the session.

Sreesanth was devastating yesterday. This morning he was expensive and moody, shaking his head and agitating in the deep. He has 14-3-83-4.

The other seamers failed to threaten. Brophy and Wainwright played it perfectly and after Warwickshire slept last night picturing a vital win, suddenly the game is right back in the balance with the momentum right back with Yorkshire.