After seeing his side shade a weather-affected draw with Yorkshire, their third of the season to go top of the County Championship, Ian Bell declared it a message sent to the rest of the division that Warwickshire will challenge for the title this summer.
With 117 overs in the match lost due to a combination of rain, snow and bad light, a result on the fourth day at Edgbaston was always unlikely. Nevertheless, Bell’s batsmen met their goal at the start of play by recording maximum batting points in compiling 443 for nine declared, through an unbeaten 61 from the wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose and a quickfire 51 by the all‑rounder Rikki Clarke.
Walking away from the match with 13 points to Yorkshire’s 11, after the visitors nudged to 73 for two by the time handshakes broke out at 4.52pm, and seeing the stalemate end a run of three home defeats at the hands of Andrew Gale’s back-to-back champions, Bell was clearly the happier of the two captains.
“Yorkshire have dominated the championship over last two years and regardless of the result, I wanted to make sure that we did send a message and we did show that we are going to be here this season,” said the 34-year-old.
“We are together, we’ll enjoy our cricket but we won’t take a backward step. You have to do that against the best sides and we did.”
Gale, whose side opened with a draw at home to Hampshire last week, said: “We know we can be better – I don’t think we’ve hit our straps. The top five haven’t dominated and we know we haven’t bowled in partnerships either. There’s been periods of play where we’ve been quite sloppy and gone around the park.”
The Yorkshire captain must now decide who makes way for the returning England batsman Joe Root in their next fixture away to Nottinghamshire on Sunday and, after reaching the close unbeaten on 13 alongside Gary Ballance, who made 21, Gale admitted he is considering opening the batting in a move that would mean the omission of his deputy, Alex Lees.
Lees made 20 before top-edging a pull to fine leg in a fiery new-ball spell from Boyd Rankin, and while Adam Lyth had already been trapped lbw by Jeetan Patel for eight by this stage, he does have a hundred to his name this season. The No6 Jack Leaning is another candidate but his half-century in the first innings made their total of 379 possible from a perilous 85 for four.
A bowler light going into the final day here – Gale expects Ryan Sidebottom to be out of their next two fixtures as they await further analysis on his ankle injury – Yorkshire did make early inroads, with Lyth involved in all four wickets in the morning as Warwickshire reached the lunch interval at 312 for six.
Holding Varun Chopra off Steve Patterson for 107 in the fourth over of play, Lyth was turned to for some of his gentle off-spin in the lead-up to the second new ball only to have Sam Hain stumped for 15 and Jonathan Trott edge an arm ball to Lees at slip for 74.
Adil Rashid would then give the 28-year-old his second sharp catch of the day, and Yorkshire a second bowling point, when Chris Woakes edged a leg-break on 15, driving.
But a life for Clarke on the stroke of lunch, dropped at third slip by Ballance off Liam Plunkett, would prove critical, with he and Ambrose putting on a maddening run-a-ball stand of 82 in the afternoon that got the home side to within 13 runs of their fifth batting point.
Clarke would eventually perish caught and bowled to Rashid attempting a third six, the delivery after his second had made it a 45-ball half-century, but the damage was done.
Rashid went on to bowl Keith Barker with a ragging leg-break to finish with figures of four for 127 from 31 overs. Changes to the toss may have been made to encourage slow bowlers but it was still an impressive showing by a bowler pushing for an England Test recall, in light of the single-figure temperatures.
