Off for rain and hail at Edgbaston after an eventful 49 minutes of play in which Warwickshire picked up two key wickets and should have had a third. Chris Woakes struck in the fourth over after the restart, with Jack Leaning driving a full delivery sans footwork to edge a catch behind on 51. Keith Barker, who was getting some hooping swing from the Pavilion End, then followed up his initial incision by teasing an outside edge from Gary Ballance on 68 to see Tim Ambrose hold a simple pouch. But the former England Test wicketkeeper fluffed his chance for a third of the day, and denied Barker the wicket of Liam Plunkett first ball, when he bungled one that found the edge and rose into his chest. Plunkett survived and to add to Barker’s misery, creamed the follow-up over for 14 with two hammered cover drives with a glorious straight drive sandwiched in between. Yorkshire 227 for six from 70.5 overs.
Some early lunchtime reading for you, courtesy of Gary Naylor:
Now clouded over and raining...
All it takes is a downbeat blog update and sunshine breaks out at Edgbaston. Groundstaff now whirring into action and umpires strolling out for a chinwag with them. Will update BTL when we get a restart time. Hallelujah!
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Greetings from Edgbaston, where the scene is rather bleak I’m afraid. Covers on, barely a soul in the ground and little sign of movement with mizzly rain falling. Both sides had warmed up but the covers were rolled on around 10.30am and there they remain. Debate in press box over the two awards being handed out next month for England Test and Limited Overs player of the year. Stuart Broad and Joe Root were my two votes, but the latter could easily scoop both. Root returns for Yorkshire next week of course, with the club facing a bit of a selection headache. Does Andrew Gale drop himself again, as he did in 2014? Or does Alex Lees, who looked a bit out of sorts yesterday albeit against a very fine new ball attack, make way? And if he does, who opens? Anyway, random noodlings on a soggy day in Brum. Gah.
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There is an art to watching, or at least reporting, on championship cricket and it comes with experience. It is knowing or anticipating what is going to be relevant to a day’s play, and tailoring accordingly. So when Surrey finished the first day on 394 for five, it is clear that the first part of the second would be about little more than them consolidating (that which we in the press box term an “earlier, comma” passage of play for reporting purposes,) and that the real meat of the day would come when Somerset start their reply.
In this regard, I am looking forward to watching how Marcus Trescothick, Chris Rogers and company cope with the bowling of Tom Curran, about whom I have heard and read a lot, but have yet to see him play live.
That may not come for a while yet though as Surrey have already taken their score to 409 without further loss, with Zafar Ansari and Ben Foakes together.
Morning all
Today we have Ali Martin at Edgbaston for Warwickshire v Yorkshire and Mike Selvey at The Oval for Surrey v Somerset. Here are their reports from yesterday:
Warwickshire v Yorkshire
Surrey v Somerset
Enjoy the cricket.
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