Honours even after Day One at Edgbaston

It’s honours even after Day One of the LVCC Division One match between Warwickshire and Surrey at Edgbaston, with the hosts reaching 322-6.

On a glorious summer’s morning in Birmingham, the hosts won the toss and had no hesitation in electing to bat first. Two changes were made from the draw at Trent Bridge, with Gareth Batty and Arun Harinath coming in for Tim Linley and the unlucky Matthew Spriegel. That meant Chris Jordan would once again get a chance to impress, and Jade Dernbach had been left out, probably because he’s not 100% fit yet.

The bowlers started well, in particular Stuart Meaker, who had a numerous amount of LBW appeals turned down inside his first 5 over spell. But the first big moment of the game came 50 minutes into the days play, when off Murali Kartik’s first delivery, Ian Westwood struck the ball into Rory Burns at short leg. Burns seemed to take the catch, but as he tried to celebrate, he let go of the ball, and the umpires deemed that he hadn’t held onto it long enough. Poor cricket from Rory, simply throwing a wicket away, and with the situation our team is in at the moment, you can’t afford to let chances like that go.

That missed chance did prove to be costly, as Chopra and Westwood looked increasingly comfortable at the crease, and took their side to lunch on 105 without loss, with some thinking to be done by the bowlers.

Straight after the break, Surrey got a stroke of luck, when Chopra got an inside edge back onto his stumps off the bowling of Jordan, and the breakthrough had been made. Jordan was bowling erratically, with numerous no balls and boundaries balls being delivered, but he claimed his second wicket, as Porterfield gloved a hook through to Davies.

Surrey had started the afternoon session strongly, and the skipper Gareth Batty struck to reduce the hosts to 188-3, as the previously comfortable Westwood was trapped in front for 67. Murali Kartik was brought back into the attack, and he trapped Maddy LBW with one that went on with the arm, as Surrey started to apply pressure.

That was the last wicket of the session though, as Troughton and Johnson took their side to the break on 216-4; but it had certainly been our session. They batted well for the first hour of the final session, putting their side into a strong position on Day one, but with the partnership on 98, Meaker made the breakthrough when he had Johnson caught by de Bruyn.

Meaker then made it two in quick succession, when he had former Surrey man Rikki Clarke caught brilliantly by Rory Burns to pick up a second bowling bonus point. That was the last wicket of the day, as Troughton (74*) and Chris Woakes took their side to the close on 322-6.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, I think Warwickshire would have taken that if it would have been handed to them at the beginning of the day, but I also feel that Surrey would be reasonably pleased with their days work. The pitch is extremely dry, and looks a belter to bat on, and after getting to Lunch without claiming a wicket, we should be happy with our afternoons work.

The main negative today was Chris Jordan’s erratic bowling, with 7 no balls and going at almost 6 an over, but the 2 wickets does make it look marginally better. If we can manage to nip out a couple of early wickets tomorrow, and roll them over for less than 350, the bowlers would have done extremely well. But with the skipper still there, and with Woakes in good form after a century last week, there is still some work to do.