Preview: Bears v Outlaws, Vitality Blast

Bears have a chance to quickly return to winning ways when they take on Notts Outlaws at Edgbaston on Saturday (6.30pm) less than 24 hours after their 100 per cent Vitality Blast record was ended at Derby.

Mark Robinson’s side – captained by the returning Moeen Ali – fell to a 17-run defeat to the Falcons as for once the Bears’ feared batting line-up failed to fire when chasing a strong 174 target set by the hosts on a tough batting wicket.

Ali smashed two early boundaries, including one six into a stand that led the umpires to call for a replacement ball, but on his Bears’ Blast debut was out for 16, while Glenn Maxwell (29 off 22 balls) also showed flashes of brilliance before departing.

A 49-run partnership between Dan Mousley and Ed Barnard threatened a surprise comeback but it wasn’t the Bears’ night.

Notts also come into the game on the back of defeat yesterday – by 56 runs to new North Division leaders Worcestershire – and sit seventh in the North Division table after three defeats from five.

First Team Coach Mark Robinson said: “We’ve had four great games and you can’t expect to progress through such a competitive competition, with games coming thick and fast, without losing one or two along the way. We didn’t get it right at Derby but we move on and have an opportunity to quickly get back on track.

“It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on, it was probably a 150 wicket, anything in that region would take some chasing so they were 25 runs over par. And when you are four down in the powerplay, you don’t win many games. 

“We had three bad overs where it really got away from us, we then lost early wickets and couldn’t get partnership going. But we’ve been brilliant for four games and I will be looking for that wake-up call to be a catalyst for a strong response against Notts.

“It’s a Saturday evening game – a double-header following the Central Sparks – the weather looks good and we’ll have another great Edgbaston crowd. Hopefully we’ll give them plenty to cheer about.”

Squad

Moeen Ali (c)
Ed Barnard
Chris Benjamin
Jacob Bethell
Danny Briggs
Henry Brookes
Alex Davies
Sam Hain
Olly Hannon-Dalby
Jake Lintott
Glenn Maxwell
Craig Miles
Dan Mousley
Rob Yates

How to follow

Members and supporters can watch the match live with our Bears Den TV live stream which will be available in our Match Centre at edgbaston.com.

The stream will be hosted by comedian and TMS commentator Aatif Nawaz, while commentary will once again be led by Adam Bridge, who will be joined by guests throughout the competition.

Supporters can get involved by sending their match day comments and thoughts on Twitter via @WarwickshireCCC and we’ll publish the best ones on our live text commentary in the Match Centre.

Supporters can also watch the Live Stream and get instant push notifications of all wickets, innings and match results via the Edgbaston app, which is free to download on iOS and Android.

Match updates will also be available across the Club’s social media accounts, simply search for @WarwickshireCCC.