Report: Nottinghamshire v Warwickshire, County Championship

Day Four

Sam Hain ended the season in solid fashion as his unbeaten 153 meant Warwickshire avoided the follow-on and brought about an early handshake on the draw both sides needed to secure Division One status.

Hain put on exactly 150 with Ed Barnard to steer the Bears to safety, while Michael Burgess struck 56 from 71 balls, in an eventual 373-7 as Warwickshire collected 13 points on the final day.

It was the second century of a stop-start season for Hain who has played only eight of 14 red ball games this campaign.

Fifth-wicket partners Hain and Barnard were finally separated on the 13th ball after lunch when teen off-spinner Farhan Ahmed switched to bowling over the wicket for the first time in the day and Barnard, who had passed 5000 first-class runs on the way, top-edged a sweep to the deep.

In a challenging summer during which personal reasons and concussion had seen him miss six games, Hain had completed a heartening second hundred of the season from 202 balls just before lunch. As Ahmed shared the new ball, he remained the anchor while Burgess provided typically combative stroke play, sending four sixes over the rope.

Burgess was finally caught swiping at Lyndon James and failed to clear mid-on. Ahmed came off next over with three for 93 from 33 overs, good figures on this pitch.

Substitute fielder James Hayes took a gentle catch at cover off Rob Lord as a loose cut undid Danny Briggs without score. After tea taken at 361-7, however, just four bonus-point overs remained, neither side adding to their tally. Notts brought Ahmed back on but he found no further success and bad light conveniently ended play at 3.50pm.  

Warwickshire could reflect on a season of just one win but the boon of no fewer than 33 batting points, a total bettered only by Surrey and Essex in Division One. Added to the reinstated increased reward of eight points for each of their nine draws, it served them very well.

Warwickshire Coach, Mark Robinson said: “It’s been a difficult year, there’s no argument with that. I’ve never known a season like it with personnel changes. To lose your best batter, Sam Hain, the day before the first match and your two overseas fast bowling signings drop out in the fortnight before the start, throws you a lot.

“It went on a bit like that all year but I’ve been massively impressed with the resilience of the squad. I’ve just told Alex Davies, in his first year as captain, that it’s never going to be so difficult again.

“We played on a lot of flat pitches like this one at Trent Bridge this year and there was a lot of rain when we were in reasonable positions so I think that’s why there were so many draws. There was lack of penetration from our bowlers at times, I admit that, but I defy any team to get by without your best bowlers. Chris Rushworth was often missing and we really need to address the depth in our bowling either through recruitment or bringing our own players through. If we’re honest we’ve had only Chris Woakes as our one locally produced pace bowler for years and that has to be rectified. We need to draw breath and come back strong: it’s my job to keep the players calm after losing one or two big one-day games for which we got criticised. On the red-ball front, these are difficult times for the county game. I was brought up in it and have a great affinity with it but you sometimes fear it’s getting a bit marginalised. I’d like to thank those four-day supporters who’ve stuck with us through the championship season, loving this type of cricket”

Day Three

Olly Hannon-Dalby reached 50 red ball wickets for the third successive season – and former captain Will Rhodes surpassed 1,000 runs for the campaign – on a day of milestones for Warwickshire.

Bears stalwart Hannon-Dalby took the opening wicket on Day Three, trapping Rob Lord LBW for 31, to hit his half century of scalps in the Vitality County Championship Division One.

Rhodes reached 1,020 runs for the summer – the first time he’s topped 1,000 in a County Championship campaign – before being bowled for 37.

He and Warwickshire skipper Alex Davies are two of only seven players to have reached the landmark in Division One this term.

Nottinghamshire added 163 to their overnight score to post a foreboding target of 487 after Kyle Verreyyne, their South Africa Test wicket-keeper, sped to a first century in England en route to an unbeaten 148 from just 167 balls.

The Bears, needing 338 to avoid the follow on, finished 344 behind at 143-4. Sam Hain will resume on a determined 59.

Only 155 overs remained in the match, and 15 would fall foul of bad light, when the visitors finally got their chance to enjoy what seemed a distinctly benevolent pitch.

However, both Davies and Rob Yates soon departed and, after a recovery to 105-2, teenager Farhan Ahmed, spinning the ball away, removed two left-handers in three balls before the premature close 14 overs later. Rhodes lost his off stump to the 16-year-old and Dan Mousley arrived to be LBW without scoring.

Warwickshire got off to a shaky start. Rob Yates, working to leg, sent a leading edge to second slip as Brett Hutton began the reply with a wicket maiden and Alex Davies played on to Jacob Duffy for five when trying to remove his bat.

Things were calmer by the time the September shadows closed in, with Ed Barnard supporting Hain, both right-handers finding life marginally easier against Ahmed and judiciously employing the sweep.

Earlier Yates, with his second ball of the day, had Hutton smartly stumped by Michael Burgess for 29 to leave the hosts eight down but the Bears missed out on claiming a third bowling bonus point.

Yates struck again after 114.5 overs to remove Ahmed, who cut to Davies at backward point, with Burgess taking another stumping off Mousley – the eighth bowler employed by Warwickshire – to round off the Notts’ innings.

Hannon-Dalby said: “Let’s face it this isn’t where we want to be finishing a season, just surviving, but I’m obviously very happy that relegation is no longer an issue.

“Nottinghamshire have a fine bowling attack and it’s nice that we stepped up to a bit of pressure after they made runs and took early wickets. They are still ahead in the game so our aim has to be to get beyond the follow-on. It should be hard for either team to get into a winning position given how long’s left.

“For my part I’m really chuffed to get to 50 wickets again. It’s your target most years and I’m really proud to do it again. I’m delighted for Will Rhodes, too, getting to his first 1000 in a season today.

“When I first got to Warwickshire I had to bide my time really because there was such a really good attack and I’d get bits and pieces and one-day games. I really love red-ball cricket myself and when the chances began to come from 2019 I don’t think I changed too much technically. More a matter of gaining confidence from success and knowing you’re contributing.”

Day Two

Nottinghamshire recovered from 55/3 to close on 324/6 after locally-raised teenage Freddie McCann eased the home side’s relegation fears with an impressive 130.

A beautiful early wicket by Michael Booth – who found the perfect away swinger to uproot Joe Clarke’s off stump – buoyed the Bears shortly after the delayed 1pm start due to overnight rain.

But as the skies cleared and sun shone, the Trent Bridge wicket turned benign and offered less for Warwickshire’s seam attack.

Olly Hannon-Dalby had a rare wicket-less day which means he remains on 49 for the campaign.

Notts’ Jack Haynes offered a measured 47 and Kyle Verreyyne an increasingly rapid unbeaten 76 in support of McCann as the hosts secured two batting points. A draw will now be enough now for both sides to escape the drop.    

Nottinghamshire were within 20 minutes of tea before a fourth wicket fell. Haynes became an early victim for Danny Briggs’s left-arm spin when beautifully held at slip by Will Rhodes.

It ended a 127-run stand at better than a run a ball and the interval, coming after 36.4 of the day’s re-jigged quota of 75.4 overs (the last eight were lost later to bad light), arrived with 211-4 on the board and McCann just past his century from 147 balls.

Warwickshire tightened up markedly but found another partnership beginning to accelerate. Verreyyne, the South Africa wicket-keeper with a Test hundred to his credit, settled into his fourth innings since joining Notts and the first batting point came up what proved an hour from the close.

With the fifth wicket having added 98 two men then fell in eight balls, McCann yorked by Miles’s second ball back. Next over, Lyndon James had come and gone for two, edging to the lone slip as Rhodes, the seventh bowler, reprised his knack of invariably grabbing an early success.

But the 300 came up and if Warwickshire can claim their final bowling point on Saturday and also pass 300 themselves, they would not go down whatever happens in either relegation game.

Away from play, eyes remain on a threatening forecast – the weather may yet have the last say.

With only two days left for Lancashire at Worcester, where just 26 overs have proved possible, they have many miles to make up and rain is feared both there and in Nottingham on Sunday afternoon. Notts and Warwickshire supporters may be breathing more easily at the half-way point of this final round.

Warwickshire Bowling Coach, Stuart Barnes said: “It was our intenton at the start to make up the five points needed to be safe and that’s the task ahead of us. If we get the opportunity to push on from there we will go for it. You work out the pieces of the jigsaw and then make sure it happens.

The conditions today were very different from yesterday  when it was very bowler-friendly. It played like a difficult pitch. Today there were far smaller margins of error and you’re not always able to hold a length in the wind. There are always small margins in it – we beat the bat several times and on another day would have taken wickets.

McCann put us under a lot of pressure and played very well. Took a good ball to get him out, but Craig (Miles who bowled him with a yorker) has proved his whole career that he’s a wicket-taker. He’s one of the best in the business when he hits his straps. Will Rhodes got a number of plays and misses as well later on. In little pockets we managed well but you can’t always excecute everything that’s intended. Morale has always been good”

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.”