The rain which has plagued Warwickshire’s pre-season programme struck again as it closed in shortly after lunch on the opening day of the three-day friendly with Derbyshire at Edgbaston.
The match was originally scheduled as a 2nd XI game at Derby. But the recent deluges have left conditions at Derby unplayable so the game was switched to Edgbaston and also, with both sides short of practice, now includes many first-team players.
After the Bears chose to field first, their bowlers, starved of match-practice by the recent wet weather, started to chip off some rust as the visitors reached 147 without loss.
Ben Slater (89 from 126 balls) and Luis Reece (43 from 110) were still unparted when rain returned five overs after lunch. The left-handed Slater survived an early caught-behind appeal off Chris Wright to bat forcefully, at one point hitting fours from four successive balls from Ryan Sidebottom.
Olly Stone and Will Rhodes were the pick of the Bears bowlers before. Fast-bowler Stone showed good rhythm in his spell of 7-0-19-0 while medium-pacer Rhodes bottled up the scoring with 6-3-5-0.
Warwickshire’s other bowling figures on the truncated day: Keith Barker 10-3-21-0, Wright 9-1-37-0, Sidebottom 4-0-37-0 and Henry Brookes 3-0-16-0.
Day Two
Play will start at the usual time of 11am, with gates opening at the standard Championship time of 10am, and entry will be completely free to all.
Please note that the Tom Dollery Members Lounge will be open as usual, but the David Heath Suite and all other parts of the stadium will be closed to support the club’s preparations for the start of the Specsavers County Championship on Friday 13 April.
