Harder to Bear - Warwickshire - Day 2
By Grockle
June 27 2002
Not a great day. Halfway to the Bears total with only 3 wickets down and we come up 22 short? What happened? The middle order didn't fire and their bowlers did it seems! Ho Hum. We're 258 behind and half their wickets still to go...Day 3's gonna be important then!
WARWICKSHIRE CC1 @ EDGBASTON 26 JUNE 2002
DAY ONE |
DAY TWO |
DAY THREE |
DAY FOUR |
Big Hopes...
How long could Steffan Jones last and what could we put on today from a starting point of 121? We had some decent men to come. Jonah is no slouch and there was Parsons, Blackwell, Turner, Dutch and Bulbeck to come...Hell, even Johnson might come out to bat and he can put on runs at quite a rate.
Dashed....
Well Jonah lasted 10 balls and the score didn't change. It got worse when the rock of the innings - Peter Bowler - went 4 runs later. Two new men at the crease with less than 5 overs of the day gone! Blackwell and Parsons stopped the rot with a partnership of 48 but when Blacky went with 173 to Somerset's name, KP went straight after him ( we do this a lot...has anyone else noticed?)
Dutch lasted 5, Turner put on 13 and Bulbeck and Johnson added another 17 before Bulbeck was last out for a paltry 208. Not what was needed. We'd lost 6 wickets for 87 runs and given them a 22 run lead to go into the second phase with. We needed a bowling performance like the first innings! Wagg, Pollock, Betts and Brown had done for us and we needed to be better.
Hopeful...
At 1 for 1 it looked good (Clifford bowled Bulbeck) and 2 for 19 (Powell bowled Jones) suggested a Warwickshire collapse. But Ian Bell and Dominc Ostler had other ideas and their 41 run partnership steadied the Brummy ship before Troughton and Ostler added 123 to put them at 183 for four and in the driving seat. Ostler finished the day on 110 not out and although Jones got Pollock for another measly total (10), Brown is there with the centurion and we need a good morning on the third day or we are going to be batting out a day and a half to save a game.
Bowling positives...
Blackwell put in 28 overs for a mere 50 runs, and although he didn't get the wickets, he didn't go for loads. Bulbeck added one wicket to his first phase bag but doesn't seem to have had as much penetration. Steffan Jones was once again the pick with 3 for 54 and it looks like it is down to him to make Warwickshire uncomfortable tomorrow morning. We don't want much more than 275 to make in the fourth innings and that looks like a hopeful target at the moment. Over 300 could make US the uncomfortable ones!