v Warwickshire Bears @ Edgbaston B&H 28 April 2002

We must have gone there confident.  Steffan Jones out with a hamstring but Francis and Trego fighting to replace him.  The Bears good at the wicket but suffering from a lack of bowling options (Shaun Pollock aside of course).   A good confident performance and a solid win would put us in the driving seat for the next few days of intense cup one day action.

Didn't quite turn out that way!  Cox left out Matt Wood and brought in the Francis for Jones and Trego as a bat and ball option.  He looked at the weather, knew it was going to be patchy and decided to bet on chasing a total that might be affected rather than try and post one.

We met Nick Knight in his great form.  126 off 114 balls with OK support but not scintillating stuff from his partners.  It rained before they started.  35 minutes were lost and the game decreased to a 46 over match.  They started by putting on 61 in 40 minutes before we got a look in and not one of our bowlers could keep the over rate down.  Johnson 5.37, Bulbeck 7.28, Francis 6.77, Trego 6.4, Parsons 5 (1 over), Burns 6.75 and Dutch 5.7.  We got 41 overs in between the showers and as the rain started to increase the heavyness of the pitch, the total increased the problems for the team batting second.

Warwickshire finished on 263 for 6. The wickets were shared with only Burnsy getting more than one.  It was all a bit flabby and flat to be honest.   After the rain gave in for a bit, the Duckworth/Lewis revised target was 270 of 38 - How can a side batting second be asked to get a score that is more than the first one in 8 overs less?  Somerset were not far into their attempt when we were off again, for bad light this time, and when they finally got on for a decent period the target had changed to 222 off 27.2 overs - EIGHT plus an over.  At no time did Warwickshire hit this run rate...it is beyond me.  I know the system takes into account all aspects of the whole innings but what is the point if it turns the second half of a game into a farce.

We didn't help ourselves by letting it get to us.  The outfield was soggy and slow - a bit lilke our batting I suppose.  Cox settled in at one end and watched his partners arrive and leave in very quick succession.  Bolwer for 0 with 5 on the board, Burns for 1 - 5 minutes later, Blackwell made two before he got in out of the rain - 3 minutes at the crease.  12 for 3 and the game was over.   Peter Trego spent 15 minutes accumulating 5 when we needed more than a run a ball and although Parsons and Turner settled the batting collapse again, after 19 overs we had managed 78 at 4.1 and over.  We needed 172 and we lost by 94 runs.

It is gonna rain during April/May and the B&H is over for many within the next 8 days.  We've got James and company popping down on Tuesday.   They bat but shouldn't be a problem in the bowling department.  Northants really do only bat and then Gloucestershire get their one crack at us this year.  To cap it all off we have Hicky on his favourite ground.  Admmittedly, we have Caddick for some of those but unless we get this bowling attack tight, we are going to be facing teams who want to bat first and whoare capable of sticking it to us with totals of 300 plus.  Warwickshire would have put over 320 past us today - assuming they didn't accelerate after 40 overs...and they only used Knight!!

Two days to sort it....ho hum

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