This match teased and turned, offering fleeting promise, before accepting its fate: it would be drawn. An undercooked pitch made stroke play easy at no stage, yet seldom did wickets tumble. The 86 overs lost to early June’s passable impression of early March over the first three days came back to bite, as both sides simply gave themselves too much to do.
The final day on Wednesday offered the game in microcosm. Middlesex prised out the eight wickets they needed, but not quite quick enough. Chasing 270 in 54 overs, the five wickets they lost, having been 80 without loss, drained all wind from their sails but came too late for Warwickshire to hammer home that advantage.
As Jonathan Trott and Varun Chopra shared 47, Warwickshire readied themselves for a tilt at the win. Then after Sam Robson, back-peddling and direct-hitting from short-leg, marvellously ran out Trott to set about a collapse of five for 22 (including four wickets for two runs in 19 balls from James Harris and Toby Roland-Jones), it was Middlesex smelling blood. Chopra and Evans played across Harris and were lbw, Rikki Clarke succumbed to the same fate to Roland-Jones, and Keith Barker flicked to midwicket two balls later.
But the last three wickets cost 60 either side of lunch. Jeetan Patel swatted Steven Finn into the Mound stand as Tim Ambrose resisted. They fell in consecutive balls – the latter bowled by Roland-Jones, the former poking Finn to mid-on. Seventeen minutes of game-sapping last pair resistance followed.
The equation remained enticing for both sides but Middlesex’s approach to their chase was risk averse; they hoped to enter the last 20 overs needing 120, with eight wickets in hand. Robson and Joe Burns doughtily shared 80, to offer a platform. But four quick wickets for 25 saw all hopes fade. Clarke had Robson and Nick Compton nicking off in three balls, before Boyd Rankin tempted Morgan and James Franklin outside off and they chopped on.
Burns batted beautifully – strong on the drive and cutting late – for 72, and looked surprised to be given out stumped. He was last to fall and five overs later – at 6.30pm, hands were being shaken.
Both sides left content. It’s a result that leaves Middlesex top and Warwickshire third. “We were seriously thinking about having a crack,” Franklin said. “Our bowlers were brilliant to give us a sniff of winning but we lost a couple of quick ones after a start to snuff out any chance of chasing of on a variable pitch.
“It was nervy at stages,” said the Warwickshire coach, Dougie Brown. “We knew we’d have to bat exceptionally well to get in a winning position, especially after losing a whole day’s cricket. Middlesex bowled well and put us under the pump so we had to reevaluate. We got five wickets but it wasn’t to be.”
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