From midday onwards the bell-ringers of Worcester cathedral rang the changes on the 12 bells that hang high in the tower. With King John entombed beneath, Worcester has a special reason for celebrating the octocentenary of the signing of Magna Carta and, if the mathematics tell that to ring all the permutations would require 479,001,600 changes and more than 30 years of continuous ringing, then the four hours they did boom out was more than adequate to do the job.
Whether, as with Quasimodo, the bells affected the batsmen of Worcestershire is a moot point. But not long after they started to sound out the scoreboard read 104 for one with Daryl Mitchell and Moeen Ali purring along at getting on for four runs per over. By the time the final change had rung, however, the last two Worcestershire batsmen were traipsing into the dressing room for a late tea, the innings having subsided to 243 all out after nine wickets fell for 139 in 37 overs.
There were some well-oiled runs, though, from Moeen, who made 45 before a languid dismissal, and a maiden half-century of considerable promise from the 19-year-old Joe Clarke. A prolific presence in the second team, where he is the only Worcestershire player to make two double hundreds,Clarke is now in his second first-class match and his first at New Road.
In the quiet of the evening, as some dark clouds rolled in threateningly, the Worcestershire bowlers in turn made substantial inroads into the Warwickshire innings, thanks to an incisive spell with the new ball from Joe Leach. He took the wickets of Varun Chopra, Ateeq Javid and Laurie Evans at a cost of 18 runs, with Jack Shantry claiming the wicket of Jonathan Trott for a third-ball duck.
There was the later sight of Saeed Ajmal, whose arm was once as straight as Tony Soprano, now operating with it like a gun barrel, a little higher now than the prototype that was first demonstrated using a white ball against Bangladesh.
This is his first first-class game since Pakistan’s Test match against Sri Lanka in Galle in August, and the test will be to see how much of his deception remains now that he is deprived of his doosra.
His presence, though, will surely have an impact on the amount of bowling Moeen can get, overs he sorely needs to regain the sort of bowling rhythm he produced last summer.
Warwickshire finished the day on 101 for four, with Ian Bell unbeaten on 46, and nicely placed to capitalise on the second day. With 14 wickets in the day, there is the prospect, perhaps, of a visit from the pitch inspector, although many of the dismissals owed more to carelessness than any capriciousness in the surface. Thus far Bell and Tim Ambrose, 31, have added 66 for the fifth wicket.
Given the unruffled manner in which Mitchell and Moeen were progressing the collapse, which began with the Worcestershire captain’s careless dismissal right on lunch and was continued with three more wickets immediately after, was unexpected. Moeen, in particular, had looked in silky touch, driving and hitting seven boundaries with time to spare before he, like Mitchell, clipped tamely to mid-wicket.
It took a sparky stand of 53 in nine overs between Clarke and Leach to revive the innings. The former was well organised and straight in defence, hitting nine fours in a 61-ball 50 before he seemed to check a short-arm pull against Boyd Rankin.
He made such clean connection nonetheless that the ball just pinged from his bat straight to Trott on the deep square-leg boundary.
