Report: Nottinghamshire v Warwickshire, County Championship

Day One

Warwickshire took the limited spoils from a day featuring only 15.2 overs of play as Nottinghamshire finished on 33/2 as rain and bad light frustrated the players and crowd.

Both teams will have had their heads cocked for developments 85 miles west, beside the Severn. Over in Worcester, Lancashire will escape if they can take 15 more points than Nottinghamshire can muster in this match or 20 more than Warwickshire.

In difficult conditions throughout, the damage might even have been worse and Notts will have greeted the premature close with much relief. Warwickshire’s two new-ball bowlers, Olly Hannon-Dalby and Ed Barnard shared the spoils, such as they were, on a day tasting truly of autumn.  

Finding repeated movement off a pitch subject to endless rain over the last week, Warwickshire, winning a good toss, struck in the sixth over when Barnard nipped one back to hit Haseeb Hameed’s off stump.

Out for seven, the captain was replaced by Freddie McCann but he’d faced only 15 balls before bad light proved the prelude to a heavy shower, with lightning flashing to the south. In 44 minutes’ play up to the stoppage, Nottinghamshire moved shakily to 27-1. 

After a considerable wait, the players made their way onto the with 29.1 overs left in the day. Alas, this proved to be for one ball only, duly left by Ben Slater, before bad light again intervened. Thankfully, brighter conditions allowed a re-start twelve minutes later, four slips being immediately posted for McCann.

It was Ben Slater, however, who went to a fine, sharp catch by Will Rhodes at first slip to give Hannon-Dalby his 49^th wicket of the summer and leave him as the third most succesful first-division seamer this season. Two balls later, though, the umpires again decreed bad light and rain followed once more at 4.47 leading to the close of play.

Warwickshire Vice Captain Ed Barnard said: “Of course, we’d always be aiming to win the game but I’ll not lie by saying we’re unaware of the situation in matches elsewhere and it’ll be nice to get the five points we need to be safe. I think this’ll be a good pitch in the end of the day so there’s a long way to go.

“Frustrating would be the best way to sum up our Warwickshire season, falling just short at the wrong time in the white-ball game – we’ll reflect on that, obviously. In the championship we definitely want to finish the season with more than one win and winning here would be a great way to end.

“We’re know they (Notts) are under relegation pressure and we’ve got to take that to our advantage. I’m sure everyone in the team looks for the win anyway and there are possibly some nice individual targets ahead to. Olly (Hannon-Dalby) got one more wicket today and is on 49 now so it’d be great for him to complete the 50 for the season. And Will Rhodes is just 17 short of his first 1000 in a season which would be a great way for him to leave Warwickshire.”

Preview: Nottinghamshire v Warwickshire, County Championship

Experienced seamer Chris Rushworth misses Warwickshire’s final game of the season with a hamstring injury picked up during the defeat to Essex last time out.

But Bears have been boosted with news that pace bowler Michael Booth’s side strain is not as serious as first thought and he’s in line to return at Trent Bridge.

Loan signing Roman Walker – a 24-year-old seamer who’s joined for the season run-in from Leicestershire – comes into the squad as First Team Coach Mark Robinson considers his bowling options in the face of the latest injury setback. 

England Bear Dan Mousley has been back in red ball training after spending a week with the national T20 squad and is also in line to play.

Bears need five points to ensure Vitality County Championship Division One safety but rain is again set to disrupt the final round of matches.

Robinson said: “We’ve had a difficult few weeks. A loss to Essex on a wicket that did a hell of a lot more than either side expected. And to make matters worse we lost Rushy at a pivotal moment of the match. He’s out of this game.

“We’ve had better news on Boothy. The original diagnosis was that he would be out for a few weeks but it’s not as bad as first feared.

“We’ve regrouped this week, worked hard together. The desire will be there; we’ll be trying to win the game. We’ve done all we can to be ready physically, tactically and technically.

“We don’t want to think negatively about drawing or saving the match, so from the first ball bowled we’ll be doing what we can to win the game.

“There are lots of distractions. What’s happening at other grounds, conversations about how many points you need, and the weather. And if you get too invested in the distractions you can take focus away from the job in hand and what’s needed to be done.”

Will Rhodes is set to play his final game for the club and Robinson reflected on the “special relationship” he’s enjoyed over the years with his former captain.

Rhodes is just 17 runs short of reaching 1,000 for the County Championship season, the first time in his career he’s reached the milestone.

“We’ve spent a lot of time together,” added Robinson. “When when you work closely alongside a player as captain and coach for a period of time you form a strong bond. So it’s always hard when that comes to an end.

“But players need to do what’s best for them at different times in their career and we understand his desire to play T20 cricket.

“His final game at Edgbaston didn’t work out as he would have scripted it, so he’ll be desperate to put on a good performance on his final game in a Bears shirt.”

Squad

Barnard
Booth
Briggs
Burgess
Davies
Hain
Hannon-Dalby
Lintott
Miles
Mousley
Rhodes
Shaikh
Walker
Yates

How to follow

Members and supporters can follow the match live in our Match Centre at edgbaston.com, which will include a free-to-watch Live Stream and a live text commentary. You can also see a ball-by-ball feed and watch highlights of all the action.

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.