The captain's take on it...
Ian Westwood's reflections on the defeat to Lancashire.
"The guys gave it a real go on the last day and, in a way, that makes it more disappointing. When you fall short by 60 you cast your mind back through the game and there were so many areas where we let ourselves down and could easily have found those 60 runs.
"Trotty never looked like getting out and it was a great shame we weren't chasing 300 rather than 450. But a first innings of 113 is not enough on any pitch under any circumstances and, if we are honest, we didn't bowl as well as we would have liked on the first morning with conditions in our favour.
"We haven't produced big scores yet this season and I am not sure we have quite adapted to circumstances quickly enough. We seem to assess that a pitch is quite hard to bat on and then improve second time round rather than communicating that early in the first innings and be willing to graft out that first 20 overs and get past that new ball. We haven't done that a couple of times now and the lower order aren't always going to bail us out."
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Brian Halford - Brian Halford’s look at Edgbaston.
I think a lot of top order batsmen around the country have struggled to adapt to the new roller regulations having grown used to playing on pitches which had had every last bit of life rolled out of them.
The PCA have been complaining about the amount of cricket played again. While I have some sympathy when it comes to the amount of the one-day/ T20 stuff, I notice that one of the points they make is that their members can't produce cricket of the required intensity. However, so far this season the cricket played in the Championship seems to be notable for its competitiveness and intensity- much more so than the last few seasons.
For me the Championship is the most vibrant it has been for years. Whatever needs fixing in cricket today, it isn't the Championship!
Spot on, Red Baron. It's a point I intend to make soon in the Mail simply by detailing Warwickshire's five championship matches so far this season: every one a terrific cricket match