v Warwickshire @ Taunton Wednesday 15 April 2009

Scorecard 

Somerset Internet Commentary link

BBC Warwickshire (for those who want "more")

The 'Cadmeister' is injured!  He's suffering from 'stiffness' and will be scanned tomorrow. If it is minor he will probably be part of the one day side for Sunday.  However we move on...

The named side is:

Marcus Trescothick (VC) opening with Arul Suppiah (interesting).  This must be based ob Suppiah's  form during the friendlies and his two centuries.  Neil Edwards is named in the squad but is unlikely to play as these two have been officially named as the opening pair and it is unlikely that the captain will have given up the number 3 spot.

Justin Langer, James Hildreth, Zander de Bruyn, Craig Kieswetter and Peter Trego will follow as the batting lineup with Peter and Zander doubling up as part of the seam attack.

Charl Willoughby will lead that line with "Grocklee"  Mark Turner as his new ball partner while Ben Phillips is expected to be the other seamer providing a tight change and partnering Trigger and Zander as an option.

The spinning allrounder spot has been won by Omari Banks who did look the best in the spinning department during the friendlies and will be expected to show more with the bat than last year as he would be expected to be coming in at number 9 after Phillips in my team. 

COMMENTARY

It is hoped that Somerset will be offering an interneet streamed commentary on this four day match and when I know where it is I'll provide a link from here.  It will be on the official site and hopefully well signposted.  The attached thread to this story will also be live while the game is on and if you have comments please put them on here and we'll use them during the coverage here possible.

Here we go everyone. Strap yourselves in for what could be a bumpy and quite exciting ride.....More tomorrow

Tomorrow....

Started on time.  Bit of a surprise.  Both commentary teams are here but the ground has lost its internet connection completely and both don't seem to be opperating.

Anyway the cricket....

We won the toss and decided to bowl in the overcast conditions.  Charl Willoughby opened from the River end and immediately got himself into the swing of things.  Ben Phillips opened at the other end in preference to Mark Turner and looked a hell of a lot better than he did a week ago against Glamorgan.  Frost and Maddy are opening for Warwickshire and we have two threes in the first over as the scoreboard bondary is some way across the park from the wicket itself.  The strip they are using is past the Botham stand providing a short boundary on the new flats side of the ground.  Tempting.

After a couple overs of semi-bondaries and 12 runs to the visitors, Ben gets his radar sorted out a little and gets Frost in two minds over leaving a ball.  He doesn't and Craig takes his first catch of the season and Warwickshire are 12 for 1 after 4 overs.  We welcome Ian Bell to the crease and the pace slows down dramatically as our new ball boys keep both batsmen wary and quiet.  After 6 and a half overs they have moved to 18 and that short pull to the Brewhouse is probably not as tempting.

Change of Game

  Welcome to Taunton Darren

Mark Turner is introduced from the OP end for the 12th but his line isn't what we'd like it to be and he is taking some stick and they moved into the 60's by the end of the 17th.  However, as Charl  gives way to Ben at River end the game changes as he gets Maddy to misread one and takes out his off pole for 17 at 66.  Jonathan Trott comes to the crease, shoulders arms to Ben's first and gets a straight one that hits him a trifle high - but not in the eyes of Umpire Illingworth and its 66 for 3 with Mr Phillips on a hat-trick!!  It doesn't happen but Bell and Troughton face a very different route to lunch.

 And Jon Trott first ball to boot!!

After 5 overs for 20+ Mark Turner gives way at the OP to Peter Trego who starts his account at 78 for 3 in the 22nd. He nearly gets through with his first.

Bell stamps his name on a 50 after 84 balls with 9 fours coming up in the 26th.  Name on an England space?  Maybe not yet.  They go in at 101 for 3 with Troughton on 8 and Ben Phillips returning excellent figures of 33 for 3 off his 10.

Honours even?  Probably,  Well done to Mr P and let's hope I get to commentate on good stuiff from our side in the next 2 and a bit hours.  My turn to talk into the ether.  More on the game later.

So the luchtime interval gave our main bowlers a rest and they certainly worked at it straight after the break with Mark and Charl  keeping both Bell and Troughton guessing for the larger part of the next 90 minutes.  Runs as rare as hen's teeth and mostly coming from boundaries as bowlers strayed.  Good field placings with a heavy off side bias made the Warwickshire men wary and Trego was only introduced into the attack just before a small rain break.  Bell looked to get him away a little more but didn't manage to get a handle on him before the light really closed in and the rain followed at about 2:45.

An early Tea has been taken at 3:00 so there'll be no play until 3:30.  But the light has improved dramatically although we've had quite a heavy shower and the covers are on the pitch and the run-ups as I type. 

We need Bell or Troughton gone quickly with a score presently on 139 for 3 and a 73 run partnership between them.  Troughton doesn't look confident but Bell is starting to look ominous.  Hopefully we'll get the majority of the 54 overs left in because the sun is finally breaking through and we'll probably start on time after the interval.

A Bell Square cut - not that common but no less wonderful for that

Jim Troughton moving towards a well deserved studious 50

But we didn't start at 3:30, the rain and light plagued us for another hour and a half before finally relenting and letting us back onto the pitch at 10 to 5.  Almost immediately, Bell and Troughton took a more forceful approach to the jjob of scoring runs and we had little to keep them in check.  Peter saw more stroke play from Bell and Phillips was finding it difficult to keep and increaqsingly confident Troughton in check.  The two Bears were looking for runs of any kind to the leg and increasingly to the off side and Justin's attempts to keep them tied down with field placings were hampered by bowlers straying off line.  This was no run fest but it did allow Bell to go into the 80's and his partner to complete a 102 ball fifty before our skipper finally reverted to spin after trying Zander at the OP for a number of overs.

Almost immedaitely after Omari Banks was called into the attack (2 balls later to be exact), the umpires decided that the light had deteriorated and offered the light.  Mildly surprised that the Warks men took it with 20 overs to go but even though the officials stayed outside on the pitch, then chatting to old friends on the boundary and Frosty left the stumps in....at just gone six play was abandoned for the day with the visitors taking the lions' share of the spoils and leaving the pitch with 189 to their name for the loss of 3 wickets.

Bell is still making his point - but he's not fully there yet - with 84 and Troughton has 58.  But it took the English number 3 prospect 248 minutes and 160 balls for his score so the opposition did not have it all their own way (however only three real chances were offered).  Ben Philips was the pick of our bowlers with 3 for 51 and 7 maidens in his 15 overs.  All the bowlers went for less than 4 an over but were not at all penetrating in what should be expected to be bowler friendly conditions and that is a real concern.

3 days to go.....back tomorrow.  See you all then.

DAY 2

The majority of this day was going to be Warwickshires unless we broke through early.  That didn't happen and althought the first session saw roughly the same conditions as the start of Day 1, it wasn't until the Bears passed 200 and moved to 220 that we made any progress.  Bell and Troughton made Peter Trego and Mark Turner suffer from a lack of precision particularly in their first spells. 

It was Troughton who was next to go and it was to the tight bowling of Charl Willoughby who had him caught by Phillips.  This confirmed the issue about our attack during the first two days.  Sort your line and length out.....and then be consistent about it!!  It wasn;t that we didn't bowl a proper line and length.  It was that we couldn't maintain that once we had found it and therefore the Warwickshire bats could simply batten down and wait for the bowlers to lose their fix and then plunder the loose deliveries that started again.

Meanwhile, Bell was moving up a gear and towards 150 and Tim Ambrose arrived to help him in that journey.  Lunch found the partnership worth over one hundred and Langer struggling to come up with a way to stop these two.

331 at the start of the second session of the day and little in the armoury that the Somerset skipper had not tried.  Willoughby was gong for less than 3 and over buy could not bowl all day.  Phillips was working hard but did not look particularly dangerous.  Omari Banks had been tried and had fared quite well but there wasn't a lot for him and the two young seamers were pushing over 4 an over when used.

However, two things changed the afternoon.  The weather turned, the cloud cover started to move and the sun began to dry the pitch out a little.  Secondly... Phillips got lucky.  For a couple of overs, Ian ell had been looking to flip the legside deliveries that were moderately regular down to the boundary and had failed most of the time.  he did not hide this intention but the bwolers kept providing the ball for him to try.  Such a delivery came from Ben and Ian flipped it.....straight into the welcoming gloves of the keeper.  361 for 5 and the anchor had gone for 172.  Excellent innings from a good player with a mature head on his shoulders.  He was sent here to make runs and he did what was expected - probably beyond expectations.  Good on him.  It was a joy to watch.

Rikki Clarke arrived and Justin got the brain going again.  He re-introduced Mark Turner at the OP.  First ball was fast and banged in.  Rikki had to get very low to get keep the ball from his head and he is a big man.  The second ball was more of the same...past the nose.  Third ball not the yorker the batsman was expecting so it found him playing a ball thaty came up on him rather than dropping at his feet and Craig took another catch.  We were back in the match at 362 for 6. 

Ambrose was still there and the captain needed to remove him to get both ends open.  The Warwickshire captain had not looked all that comfortable and had sepnt a long time in the high 40's before he had passed the half ton. Langer had to look for variation and turned to his 6 foot plus off spinner for that variation.  Banks was up to the task and kept the right hand batsmen in check.  He didn't seem that comfortable bowling around the wicket to the left handers.  The visitors had sent in Neil Carter in who hooked his first ball for six and his second four four to almost the same postion.  It gave the impression that he had been sent out to mae big runs quickly.

Omari had other plans though and they came together as he totally fooled Ambrose at 385 with a ball that grew on the opposaing skipper, evaded his bat and took his off bail away.  Much to the delight of our Leeward Islander who went for a bit of a sprint!! 385 for 7.  We had a chance to limit this innings.  Giles had changed the order and the young number 11 Chris Woakes in to partner Carter who seemed to be determined to hit the cover off the ball. Langer  responded with Charl from the OP end and a duel between Carter and the lefty took place which could only really have one result.  Carter was on 21 when he didn't get bat on one and didn't get his leg out of the way. 399 for 8 and Ant Botha to the crease.  The shine went off it a bit and neither the spinner or the left arm man could capitalise. 

So...inspiration....Langer changes Charl for Turner who had his tail up when he was replaced and was now given the job of roughing up Botha while Woakes scratched about with Banks.

Turner has a ball.  He gives no indication it is coming, his run up doesn't vary, nothing in his manner suggests it is coming BUT.  As he delivers the ball comes out of his hand at about 3 to 5 miles faster than the ball before and more than one batsman has just not got into his shot in time.  Botha got one.  It was simply on him too fast and he spooned it up in the air.  Turner  went after it but realised that Zander had a better chance and allowed him to take the catch.  It was a fast man's wicket and it was just what we needed.

So 433 and an end in sight?  Nope.  We lost it again.  Or it was taken away from us by Chris Woakes who grew from a youngster scratching about to get the spinner away from his stumps to an established batsman stroking Banks to the boundary and taking on all the pace that Someset could put in front of him.  Getting them out before 450 trurned into trying to get them out before Tea or before they got to 500!!  Neither happened.  They went into Tea with 492 on the board and Woakes making the bulk of those runs with just over 50.  We considered the possibility of a Warwickshire declaration but they returned to the wicket after the interval and Woakes looked to pass his previous best score of 64 and take his side to the other side of 500.

He failed. Willoughby had him caught on 63 at 500 and the innings was over.  Psychological victory to the visitors and Woakes had probably put this game beyond a home victory.

19 overs to face before the close.  Warwickshire with their tails up keen to take wickets and Somerset with an opening partnership new for this year.  Arul Suppiah facing a baptism of fire with his partner Marcus Trescothick.  The objective?  Finish on something for no wicket.

19 overs later.  70 for 0.  Arul Suppiah 31 off 67 with 4 fours and four more sweetly struck shots you'll rarely see.  He looked confident and settled, he outscored his partner by 4 and both men looked in little trouble against the Bear pace attack and a couple of overs from Ant Botha.  A good start but a long long way to go.  If the weather doesn't intervene this game has a lot in it yet!

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