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 the Club 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. Kohler-Cadmore, A.R.I. Umeed, T.A. Lammonby, 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 337 and 27 for 1. Somerset 239. Warwickshire lead by 125 runs with nine second innings wickets standing.

Third day 24th August – A reluctant meander

In the context of modern cricket, this was a curious day. Warwickshire had ended the second day in a position of considerable strength. By the end of the third day, they still held a significant advantage, but in terms of winning the match, they had slipped back. Somerset were helped, no doubt, by the loss of 51 overs due to overnight and morning rain. But in the 53 overs that were bowled, Warwickshire added only 152 runs. In the final ten overs of the day, they added just eight, although the fall of two wickets in those final overs may have contributed to their caution. Even so, their progress over the first 40 overs or so did not speak of ambition. Rather it seemed to reflect the season of a team that had drawn six of its nine matches, including all five of their matches at Edgbaston, and won none. They were the only team in the First Division still without a win. Their draws though, worth eight points each, had kept them above the relegation places.

From early on, it was clear from my hotel window that play would not start on time. At an away match, unless you want to sit in a stand or a bar in the ground while the rain falls, you sit in your hotel or a bar in the town until there is a start in prospect. Waiting for an announcement of a start time if you are not at the ground, as I tend not to be, is an odd affair. You know the start is delayed and you can see the weather from your window. But if rain is patchy, as it became after the early torrents, you cannot easily predict a start time. If the bands of rain continue to blow through, there is no start. If they end suddenly, at a fast-draining ground like Edgbaston, play can start quickly. When the announcement of a start time is made, the rush for the bus is all. Rush because over many years of watching Somerset, I have discovered that there are a number of basic rules to which buses which take you to the cricket comply. One is, the quicker you need to get to the ground, the slower the bus goes.

Now that I live in that curious world of the smartphone, I can keep up with the Somerset score when my bus is moving at a crawl. This was one such day. While my bus was taking its time, Warwickshire found time to score two boundaries. Then, in circumstances familiar to every cricket watcher, by the time my bus pulled into the stop near the ground rain was running down the window. It was still falling as I entered the ground, and by the time I reached the tunnel under the Pavilion, the live stream screens showed the hover cover rather than players on the pitch. Those eight runs the sum total before the rain came. Even the most modern smartphone cannot control the weather, and the weather looked bleak. Overs bowled 2. Overs seen 0. Eventually though the rain did stop, and the mopping up operation began. Ground staff sometimes receive criticism from crowds over their perceived tardiness in clearing a ground after a rain break. No such criticism would have been valid on this occasion. The Edgbaston ground staff were the epitome of effort and efficiency.

By the time play resumed, it was three o’clock. At least the sun shone brightly with, by my count, about a hundred spectators dotted about the stands. In the middle, Warwickshire began what remained of the afternoon session with nine wickets in hand and a lead of 133. They bestrode the match, yet, as the remainder of the day unfurled, showed only spasmodic urgency, particularly after Will Rhodes’ off stump cartwheeled when he attempted an expansive straight drive against Josh Davey, bowling from the Pavilion End. Rhodes at least, had looked to attack, striking three fours, all off the middle. One, a back foot cover drive off Davey, raced along the ground to the short boundary in front of the Hollies Stand where I sat, high up in my perpetual Edgbaston seat. Rhodes’ departure for 20 left Warwickshire on 52 for 2, a lead of 150.

Tom Abell, fielding at a close midwicket to the new batter, Hamza Shaikh, shouted, “Come on lads, three, four.” “Come on Craig O,” added Tom Lammonby as Overton began a maiden over to Alex Davies. The encouragement though was against a background of Davey bowling to a single slip, Warwickshire’s large lead and perhaps the pitch restricting Somerset’s ability to attack. Davies did find the boundary, a pair of sweeps behind square off Leach, a clip off the legs off Ball, an edge wide of slip off Ball, the slip diving without success, and a lazy looking cut off Aldridge. But those five boundaries, and an off drive off Ball to the Barnes Stand from the near-static Shaikh, came over 18 overs which took Warwickshire to the tea interval. From 70 yards away, batting looked easy, and yet Warwickshire proceeded, at what appeared to be, a reluctant meander.

There were only two only signs of hope, both dashed, for Somerset during those 18 overs. A rare missed stumping against Davies had resulted from him charging forward against Leach in an attempt to deposit the ball beyond the long on boundary, probably some way into the Pavilion terrace next to the Hollies Stand. Rew, moved to leg, attempted to take the ball but knocked it into the leg side. Three overs later, Davies edged Ball wide of the only, diving, slip. Otherwise, those overs realised 53 runs and included five maidens. At tea, Warwickshire were 103 for 2 from 37 overs, with only four runs from the last five. With a lead of 201 and eight wickets standing, there was no sign of them attempting to build a winning position.

The pace of scoring was little better in the evening session, 76 runs in 26 overs, and not a single boundary in the final 16. The crowd, for the most part remained quiet. Not the audible quiet of deep tension, so intense you can hear it. It was more the silence of resignation at a match drifting, or perhaps it was just that with only about 130 people in the stands, any conversation was not audible to me, secluded as I was, halfway up the Hollies Stand’s denuded acres.

The first 40 minutes of the evening session did suggest that Warwickshire, or to be precise, Davies, had decided to force the pace. The third ball, Davies drove off Aldridge, bowling from the Birmingham End, through extra cover to the end of the Hollies Stand. In the second over, Leach was slog swept over midwicket into the tenth row of the Hollies Stand. A sweep for four off Leach in the fourth over awoke the crowd to the extent of a shout of, “You bears,” and Shaikh stirred himself into an on drive off Leach to the short Hollies Stand boundary.

Then followed one of those moments that the brain has to sift and re-sift to establish precisely what had happened. Davies turned Leach gently behind square and set off for a run. Shaikh responded, Davies hesitated, Shaikh hesitated, Davies started again, and Shaikh responded again, hurtling towards the striker’s end. Too late. Tom Kohler-Cadmore had gathered the ball, thrown it to Rew who broke the stumps before Shaikh’s flailing dive got him home. That at least is how it looks after a retrospective watch on a replay. Live, the lightning speed of the action and the virtually simultaneous lightning-fast stopping and starting at both ends left the mind trying to, unsuccessfully, unravel the sequence. “Very tight if they had both set off right away,” said the text from the online watcher. “Given they have shown little inclination to score runs all day, you wonder why they went for that one.” Warwickshire 133 for 3. Shaikh 21 in 19 minutes under two hours. Lead 231.

Jacob Bethell, out of kilter with the rest of the Warwickshire innings, drove his second ball from Leach through the covers to the Hollies Stand for four and late cut his third to the Barnes Stand. Those two boundaries left Warwickshire on 141 for 3 at the beginning of those final, boundaryless, 16 overs. Despite Bethell following his boundaries by trying to push the score with frequent ones and twos, those 16 overs produced just 38 runs. Davies did reach his century from 168 balls in 20 minutes over three hours, but Warwickshire seemed to have no ambition beyond stretching their innings towards and beyond the end of the day while the crowd continued its near silent vigil.

Somerset suffered the loss of Ball who pulled up and left the field mid-over, but it didn’t alter the tempo of the Warwickshire innings. Then Davey dropped slightly short to Bethell, Bethell pulled and missed, the ball perhaps kept a little low and Bethell was bowled. Warwickshire 171 for 4. Bethell 23 from 27 balls in 37 minutes. Lead 269. Ed Barnard replaced Bethell while Andy Umeed with his leg breaks had replaced the absent Ball. Barnard attempted to drive him gently into the covers and edged straight to Rew. Warwickshire 172 for 5. Barnard 0. Lead 270. With Umeed and now Tom Lammonby bowling the final half dozen overs, the day drifted to its close. Six runs came from those six overs, and nine had come from the final ten.

It had been a curious day. With Warwickshire leading the match from the start of play and no obvious demons in the pitch, it seemed as good an opportunity as you will see for a side to take the initiative, establish a base and then, with scoreboard pressure behind them, push for victory. Instead, Warwickshire, for the most part, Bethell made an attempt top break out, seemed intent on protecting their wickets and extending their innings as far as possible. It was not entertaining cricket. That, six draws and no wins thus far in the season, but also the dismal weather in the morning perhaps all contributed to the size of the tiny, almost silent, crowd.

Close. Warwickshire 337 and 175 for 5. Somerset 239. Warwickshire lead by 273 runs with five second innings wickets standing.