After five seasons of carving up county batting line-ups, Keith Barker’s status as a Warwickshire favourite is undisputed and on the second day against Lancashire at Edgbaston, the latest demonstration of the left-armer’s prowess with a Dukes ball means it is now the visitors, not the hosts, who are staring at the relegation trapdoor.
Having been bowled out for 219 on the first day, third-bottom Warwickshire looked most imperiled by Hampshire’s ongoing dominance over Durham, only for Barker’s four for 30 to roll Lancashire over for 152. The openers Ian Westwood and Alex Mellor then reached 12 for no loss and a lead of 79 runs when bad light and rain ended proceedings at 3.45pm.
Barker, who now sits on 59 wickets in what has been his most profitable campaign to date, is a Lancashire lad, having first learned his trade at Enfield Cricket Club in Accrington. That he has left the county of his birth contemplating a swift return to Division Two means very little to the 29-year-old, however, who despite a thick Mancunian accent is very much a Bear.
“It’s us or them, so rather them than us,” Barker said after the close. “The situation where we are in the league and how things are going at Hampshire, we know we have to win this game.
“It was very important we bowled as best we could. But half the job is done now, we need to follow it up again once more with the bat and ball.”
It was two other members of Warwickshire’s title-winning attack of 2012 that got things moving first up, with Lancashire’s hopes of batting once and batting big – their optimistic chat after the first day – derailed by a top order collapse in which four wickets fell in the space of 35 balls for four runs.
Full and straight was once more the way to go on this tricky surface, with Rikki Clarke, who had given Haseeb Hameed a life on one the previous evening with a simple drop at slip, providing the initial incision when the Bangladesh-bound opener looked to clip a ball to leg and was trapped lbw for 17 in the 19th over.
Chris Wright then followed this up by removing Rob Jones and Karl Brown in successive overs – both similarly struck in front – before Barker, who was introduced for Clarke immediately after Hameed’s dismissal, teased a caught behind off Luke Proctor with an outswinger to leave the visitors in ruins on 39 for four.
A flashpoint occurred on the stroke of lunch when a counterattacking stand of 40 between Steven Croft and Liam Livingston ended with Barker holding a low catch off the latter at midwicket. It prompted an exchange of words as the players walked off with the score 79 for five but Barker remained adamant after play his effort was clean.
Croft and Jordan Clark rallied for an hour after lunch in a partnership of 55 –the former top-scoring with 45 – to raise hopes of a total approaching at least parity. But when Barker bowled the Lancashire captain from around the wicket it induced another panic-stricken passage of play for the Red Rose, who lost their final five wickets for just 18 runs.
Jeetan Patel, the country’s leading wicket-taker, picked up two for 52 with Barker completing the job by rattling the stumps of both Clark, yorked on 34, and No10 Kyle Jarvis. Lancashire may have welcomed the bad light and rain that wiped out of the bulk final session but with two days remaining and forecast not terminal, they have it all to do from here.
