County Championship 2024. Division 1. Warwickshire v Somerset 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th August. Edgbaston.

Lewis Gregory was unavailable due to a groin injury. Craig Overton captained the Somerset side. Migael Pretorius had left Somerset at the end of his contract.

Warwickshire. R.M. Yates, A.L. Davies (c), W.M.H. Rhodes, H. Shaikh, J.G. Bethell, E.G. Barnard, D.R. Mousley, M.G.K. Burgess (w), M.D. Rae, C. Rushworth, O.J. Hannon-Dalby.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, A.R.I. Umeed, T. Kohler-Cadmore, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton (c), M. Pretorius, M.J. Leach, J.T. Ball.

Overnight. Warwickshire 277 for 6.

Second day 23rd August – A mountain to climb

I began the second day standing outside the café at the rear of the Wyatt Stand while talking to a Warwickshire supporter. With the pitch well over towards the Hollies Stand, the action was far away and so were some of our thoughts. We discussed the bowling of Fred Trueman and Andy Caddick and their low rate of injury while bowling large numbers of overs. While we talked, four overs passed. By the end of them, Mark Burgess and Jacob Bethell were back in the Pavilion with the new ball still an over away. Burgess, having already been missed off a very difficult low chance by Kasey Aldridge off Craig Overton, was brilliantly caught behind by James Rew standing up to Overton. Bethell was bowled by Josh Davey with a delivery which seemed to cut in off the pitch and pass between bat and pad. Trueman and Caddick might have been licking their lips, if feeling a little put out at the thought of a keeper standing up to them. In any event, Warwickshire were 287 for 8, Bethell 64, Burgess 69. They had added just ten runs to their overnight total..

At that point, I took my leave of the Warwickshire supporter and walked back to my seat in the Hollies Stand, although I think we could have talked all day. By the time I was in my seat, Michael Rae and Chris Rushworth were pummelling the boundary far too often for me to relax, although at least three fours flew off the edge past the two slips. There was no doubt though about the straight six hit by Rae off Overton to the Pavilion sight screen, or the one bounce four he pulled to the gap between the Hollies Stand and the Pavilion. By the time Rushworth skyed Davey to Tom Banton at mid-on they had added 34 runs in four and a half overs. The Warwickshire total was being stretched towards a level which might ask Somerset some questions. Rae was finally out, from an edged skyer which cleared the slips by the height of two or three telegraph poles and was caught by Aldridge pedalling backwards. Warwickshire 337. Rae 28. Rushworth 14. Oliver Hannon-Dalby 8 not out.

My ability to relax was not enhanced by an odd start to the Somerset innings. Tom Kohler-Cadmore walked down the wicket to defend his first ball, from Hannon-Dalby, and missed it to the mumbled bemusement of the crowd. Then he did it again to his second ball. This time he edged, and Rob Yates, at second slip, fell low to his right and took the catch. There was a cheer followed by the two people near me looking askance as they wondered at Kohler-Cadmore’s approach to playing the new ball. In the next over, Andy Umeed came forward to defend against Rushworth in more classical style and fared no better. He missed the ball too, and his off stump departed from its moorings. “Oh yes!” shrieked a Warwickshire supporter. Somerset 0 for 2. “Oh no!” the Somerset thought.

Tom Lammonby at least began to get the measure of the bowling, but he was beaten too, and his first boundary came courtesy of a thick edged drive off Hannon-Dalby. His cover and square driving though were emphatic, one square drive off Barnard running fast towards me and crossing the boundary below and to my right. A cricket ball rushing along the ground towards you off the bat of one of your own batters does give you a lift. Against that though, Tom Abell never looked settled. When Barnard angled a ball into him, he horribly misjudged a leave. The ball homed in on off stump and hit his pad. Abell had made five in nearly 40 minutes of struggle. Somerset 36 for 3. Deficit 301. Tom Banton replaced Abell and struggled too. An edge off Barnard bounced short of second slip. The keeper moved up to the stumps. Banton drove through the covers to the long boundary in front of the Raglan Stand for four. Then, when he tried to defend against Barnard’s next ball, he edged it low to Rhodes at second slip. Somerset 56 for 4, 57 for 4 at lunch. Banton 5. Deficit 280. “Warwickshire are bowling fuller than we did yesterday, and pitching somewhere between middle and a fourth stump,” the view of the online watcher. Whatever the cause of Somerset’s disappearing wickets, the innings was sinking deep into trouble.

Lammonby was still at the crease and had stood out from the rest of the Somerset top order. He was the only one to come to terms with the Warwickshire bowling. As lunch approached, he had taken a particular liking to Michael Rae, Warwickshire’s New Zealand pace bowler. A spectacular cover drive to the Hollies Stand stood out, but there was a neat deflection to the Pavilion and, from the other end, an on drive to the Hollies Stand too. But with a deficit of 280, it was a worrying scoreboard for Somerset supporters. Even more worrying in the context of a Surrey lunch score of 171 for 3, just 33 behind Lancashire’s first innings, although the Warwickshire supporters nearby took a different view. As the players walked off, I looked at the crowd. Crowds tend to peak around lunchtime, this one was larger than on the first day, perhaps a thousand in total.

Warwickshire began after lunch with Yates bowling off spin from the Birmingham End and Lammonby soon pushed him through midwicket to the short Hollies Stand boundary. When though he pulled Rushworth, bowling from the Pavilion End, the ball took the top edge and looped towards fine leg where Hannon-Dalby took a straightforward catch 15 yards in from the Wyatt Stand boundary. Somerset 65 for 5. Lammonby 44. Deficit 272. Lammonby’s runs aside, there had been 10 runs off Somerset bats in the innings and his departure felt like a body blow.

Kasey Aldridge joined James Rew, Somerset’s batting order looking thin without Lewis Gregory, particularly in the light of Warwickshire batting down to number eight. But the Somerset innings had reached its nadir, and their fortunes began to turn on the fall of Lammonby’s wicket. Rew began quickly, taking a pair of twos in the two overs after Lammonby’s departure and then driving Rushworth through the covers to the Hollies Stand for four. “Shot!” the cry from one Somerset supporter sitting among the well-scattered spectators in the Hollies Stand.

Thirteen runs followed in the next two overs, 12 of them from Rew, including an off drive off Rushworth and a straight drive off Barnard, both for four, “Good shot!” following the second. It only took Somerset to 91 for 5, but the manner of Rew’s assault changed the feel of the innings. When Aldridge edged Rae past the slips, a Somerset supporter said,” They had a few of those.” When Aldridge top-edged Barnard just beyond a diving cover fielder, one Somerset supporter said, “First bit of luck we’ve had for a while.” It wasn’t entirely true, but it reflected the growing hope in the Somerset mind.

There were quiet periods for Somerset, three overs passed for four singles, but the score was growing, now 112 for 5, and the batting was looking more secure. “Good shot!” the shout again when Aldridge drove Hannon-Dalby square to the Hollies Stand. An edge through slip off Hannon-Dalby from Aldridge ran for four to the comment, “A bit more luck.” Aldridge now rode his luck. Another edge, this time off Rushworth, flew past slip and crossed the Wyatt Stand boundary. It was Rew though who finally succumbed, caught behind off Rushworth with Burgess standing up. Somerset 152 for 6, Rew 49, deficit 185, but it felt an awful lot better than 65 for 5.

Immediately after the fall of Rew’s wicket, the ball was changed. It did not perturb Craig Overton who clipped his first ball, from Rushworth, to fine leg for four. His second, he survived with two pieces of luck. He attempted to drive it, connected with the inside edge, the ball flew just wide of the off stump and then yorked Burgess behind the stumps on its way to the Barnes Stand boundary. Aldridge responded with a six off Yates which cleared the boundary in front of the Wyatt Stand sight screen, no luck needed there, or for the four driven through the covers to the Hollies Stand off Barnard who had replaced Yates. A cover drive for three off Rushmore earned the comment, “Well batted”, the three runs having taken him to his fifty from 83 balls in five minutes under two hours. Then, with Somerset firmly on the charge, the players left the field for tea with the score 186 for 6, 151 behind Warwickshire. An uphill task still, but it felt so much better than it had at lunch even with Surrey now 103 ahead of Lancashire, still only three wickets down.

My teatime circumnavigation was, of course, still in progress when the players returned. As I chatted in the tunnel under the Pavilion, I kept a watch on the live stream screens which hang there and saw Overton walk down the pitch to Bethell’s slow left arm and deposit him over the long on boundary where the Hollies Stand and the Pavilion meet. When Hannon-Dalby angled a ball into him, he attempted to keep it out and was bowled. “That must just have clipped the stumps,” the Warwickshire supporter I was talking to said, perhaps the inside edge too. However narrow the dismissal, Somerset were 214 for 8, Overton 24 from 28 balls. Deficit 123. A boundary from Aldridge apart, reverse sweeping Bethell, Aldridge and Davey resorted to picking their way forward. They added nine runs in six overs before Davey was bowled through his defensive stroke by a pitched-up ball from Barnard which swung in. Somerset 214 for 8. Davey 3 from 22 balls in three minutes under half an hour. Somerset, still hard up against it, were battling.

Jack Leach followed Davey two overs later, attempting a late cut off Barnard, the ball being caught by Yates diving hard to his left from second slip as it was about to fly through the empty third slip position. It was a spectacular catch. Left with only Jake Ball to defend the other end, Aldridge looked for balls to hit. He stepped back to cut Rae, adjusted his stroke, and steered him past the point fielder before uppercutting the next ball over the keeper to the Pavilion, both for four. Two more boundaries followed, a lofted four over mid-on off Barnard and an off drive to the Barnes Stand off Rae. It couldn’t last, and eventually he was caught at mid-off driving Barnard. “Well batted,” the immediate response from the Hollies Stand. “You Bears!” from the Barnes Stand. Somerset 237 all out. Aldridge 84 from 139 balls in seven minutes under three and a half hours. Deficit 98.

By the close, arrived at early because of bad light, Warwickshire had extended their lead by 27 runs for the loss of Yates for four, caught behind off Overton driving. Alex Davies showed some intent, finding the boundary three times, twice with a steer past the slips and once with a turn into the leg side, but overall Warwickshire’s primary intent seemed to be to protect their wickets, taking ten overs to score their 27 runs. At the Oval, Lancashire were 4 for 0 in their second innings but were 237 behind Surrey. It had been Warwickshire’s day, at Edgbaston and at The Oval, and Somerset, despite their efforts in the second part of the day, found themselves with a mountain to climb, both at Edgbaston and in the Championship table.

Close. Warwickshire 337 (R.M. Yates 69, M.G.K. Burgess 69, J.G. Bethell 64, J.H. Davey 4-80, C. Overton 4-88) and 27 for 1. Somerset 239 (K.L. Aldridge 84, J.E.K. Rew 49, T.A. Lammonby 44, E.G. Barnard 5-54, C. Rushworth 3-42). Warwickshire lead by 125 runs with nine second innings wickets standing.