Bears complete 5 wicket win

Warwickshire have beaten Surrey by 5 wickets in the LVCC Division One match at the Kia Oval, after knocking off the required runs within half an hour this morning.

It didn’t take long for Ambrose and Clarke to get the runs, as our bowlers didn’t really pose any further problems. Ambrose’s innings was superb, hardly offering us a chance over the 154 balls he was at the crease for his unbeaten 89.

So, a disappointing result for us again in the Championship, and after restricting them to 37-4 yesterday, it is even more disappointing that we couldn’t complete the victory. Our first day performance once again let us down, as it has in nearly every game this season so far, and this time we weren’t allowed to get away with it, against a superior Warwickshire team. Only one of our batsman reached a half century in the match, compared to 3 from the visitors, on a pitch that didn’t look too difficult to bat on.

Credit must go to the bowlers, who did a remarkable job to reduce Warwickshire to 247 in the first innings, but that just overshadowed how bad we batted. Davies and RHB both got inexcusably run out in the first innings, and the 2 South Africans, de Bruyn and Rudolph, both look in poor form, and put it this way, I’m not too disappointed that Rudolph has played his final game for us.

Batty obviously comes out of the game with massive credit, claiming only his second 10fer in his career, and first for Surrey. The seamers found it tough on that pitch, and in particular Jon Lewis, who failed to claim a wicket in the match for the first time in the LVCC this season. In fact, all the seamers in the match failed to make a big impact, apart from in our first innings, where loose shots and the odd good delivery gave Wright, Woakes and co 8 wickets between them.

We are 5^th in the table, but likely to drop down to 6^th as Sussex are currently doing well against Nottinghamshire, with 53 points, a massive 47 behind Warwickshire at the top, who also have a game in hand.

We now turn our attention back to the CB40, after a week’s break, against the Welsh Dragons at the Swalec Stadium next weekend. We will be looking to make it 4 out of 4 in the competition, and a certain Murali Kartik could well be involved.