Record breaking Bears make Surrey toil

Warwickshire have recorded their highest ever score against Surrey to put themselves into a commanding position heading into the third day at Guildford.

The visitors struck 631-9 declared thanks to a century from Keith Barker and a highest First Class score for Ateeq Javid.

With Warwickshire starting the morning on 359-3, early wickets were an absolute must to prevent them from batting us out of the game. And early wickets is exactly what we got from Jade Dernbach, who had Chopra caught in the slips by de Bruyn for a superb 192 just 10 minutes into the day's play.

Dernbach was really bowling with pace and aggression and removed the other overnight batsman Tim Ambrose LBW to leave two batsmen at the crease on 0. The battle between Guildford boys Rikki Clarke and Dernbach didn't last long, as de Bruyn held onto another sharp chance at slip, with Warwickshire slipping to 398-6 within the first hour. However, Javid and Barker pulled their side out of the slight hole that they had got themselves in, as the other bowlers failed to build on the pressure made by Dernbach and the Bears went into lunch on 446-6.

Things got far worse after the break as Barker took the attack to the Surrey bowlers. He blasted his way to his half century with the 100 partnership between him and Javid also coming up, as they passed 500. Javid also went to his half century, his first in the Championship, at a slower pace than Barker's but was doing exactly what his side wanted. 

All attention turned to Barker, who was still hitting the ball to all parts, including pulling Meaker into Dapdune Wharf for the first six of the game. He brought up a superb century with a couple off Dernbach and had batted his side into an un-losable position. Meaker then misjudged a mistimed a pull from Barker and his return throw went for and overthrow to sum up Surrey's day, as the Bears went to tea on a massive 587-6.

Jason Roy, who bowled one over before tea, continued afterwards and would have left the frontline seamers scratching their heads, as he picked up career best figures of 3-35. He first removed Javid for a well-made 85 to end the 211 partnership between him and Barker, before trapping Barker in front with a yorker for 125. When Tom Milnes mistimed a hook to Wilson behind the stumps, Warwickshire finally pulled the plug with 21 overs remaining in the day.

Harinath and Burns did well and looked comfortable at the crease apart from one slight chance where Javid couldn’t hold onto an extremely tough chance at short leg of Clarke, as they closed on 49-0; our highest opening partnership of the season.

So, another highly frustrating day for us then. After Jade got us off to a great start this morning, there were aspirations of restricting them to less than 450, but Barker and Javid quickly stopped that from happening. They batted superbly and barely offered a chance throughout their innings, but it was disappointing that the bowlers couldn’t back up Jade’s good work. That has often been the case this season, where one bowler has created an opening and the others haven’t supported them. There was a slight glimmer that we could have reduced them to a below par score on this surface, but once again we failed to capitalise on opportunities that arose.

The sole objective now is just not to lose the game, as it has been far too often this season. The pitch is too good to bat on to collapse to 250 all out for example and Burns and Harinath did well this evening, but the follow on target is still a long way away at 481, so hard work is needed tomorrow.