All posts by csb10.top

Gosport Borough have won all five games they’ve played since late June, but it’s not been quite enough to propel them into the Southern Electric Premier League, Division 3 promotion frame.Purbrook and St Cross Symondians went into today’s final round of matches as firm favourites to claim the top two places.Andy Mengham’s side needed ten points from Ventnor’s visit to The Heath to go up as champions, while five bonus points from Havant II would have been enough to secure the probable runners-up spot for St Cross, who just missed out last term.But, after a modest four wins out of eight return from the opening two months of the season, Gosport will probably be well pleased with a probable third spot.Queenslander Nathan Collins, who becomes a naturalised Englishman for the purposes of SPL regulations next season, has once again led the way for the Borough.He’s bagged 38 wickets so far and, unless Alton’s Julian Ballinger picks up eight or more victims at Redlynch & Hale today, is virtually assured the Premier 3 bowling award for the second consecutive season.But Gosport have also done pretty well with the bat – Mike Rees, Stuart Magee and Pete Robson all homing in on a 400-run aggregate before today’s finale with Flamingo.Gosport’s fifth successive win came after a run chase at Ridge Meadow, where they cruised past Hambledon’s 248 (Leigh Burns 65) for the loss of five wickets – Collins showing his batting prowess with a neat 74.Hambledon’s season has been in complete contrast to that of Gosport, who inflicted their fifth successive defeat – a sequence of results which is set to leave them in third from bottom position.Winning or losing five games on the trot seems to be a regular occurrence in Premier 3 these days.Take Alton, for example.Top of the pile with seven wins out of eight at the start of July, their fortunes dipped dramatically with five straight defeats – a run they finally arrested with last weekend’s 62-run win over Portsmouth II.Alton must have thought promotion was theirs for the taking when they bowled over Purbrook and St Cross Symondians in late June.But, just like last season, it all went horribly wrong for Julian Ballinger’s side.They completely lost their way – being skittled for a meagre 50 by Gosport two weeks ago – and went to Redlynch today still searching to finish in a top six slot.Alton’s long overdue eighth win came at the expense of Portsmouth II – Michael Heffernan hitting a maiden century he must have feared was always to elude him.Four times previously the eldest of Paddy’s two cricketing sons had perished in the nervous 90’s, but as Alton ran up 245 against Portsmouth, so Michael notched his maiden 100.And what an appropriate time to do it – with all four members of the Heffernan clan in the Alton side !Rumour has it that Paddy’s wallet took a pounding last Saturday night …..But Heffernan’s celebrations will pale into insignificance alongside those at Purbrook Heath tonight, should Andy Mengham’s side lift the championship.Purbrook took a massive step nearer the title with a thrilling one-run win at Hursley Park – an absorbing match in which South African Willem Prozensky underlined what a talent he has.While partners came and went with regularity, Prozesky struck a quite superb 125 to take his season’s run aggregate to 924, over two-thirds of which (652) have come in boundaries.Purbrook’s 268-8 was trimmed, leaving Hursley Park a target score of 215 – which they almost got on the back of the day’s second splendid century by Paul Edwards, who was run out as the Park finished on 214-9.It was a terrific game that neither side deserved to lose.The win all but wrapped things up for Purbrook, who expect to be accompanied by St Cross into Premier 2 next season.Symondians almost tied things up themselves with an eight-wicket win over Hook & Newnham Basics (171) – Kiwi Mark Parker hitting an unbeaten 75 to ease the visitors home.Havant II pair Simon Greenfield, with an unbeaten 110, and Jon Owen (88) led a 275-2 run spree against severely weakened Flamingo, while a five-wicket spell by Fred Smith (5-21) and punchy 75 from Neil Westhorpe carried Ventnor to an 83-run win over Leckford.New Milton christened their new Fernhill HQ with a low-scoring three-wicket win over Waterlooville, but Redlynch & Hale sank to a hefty 176-run defeat at Hartley Wintney, where the village bowlers took a 280-run pounding.Paultons scored a timely late win, John Robinson hitting 66 in a 226-run total against Bashley-Rydal II, who faded after Steve Latimore’s bright beginnings and dipped to 200-9 at stumps.

The South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) has announced that, dueto the increase in public liability insurance, they have been forced toprohibit the playing of social sports at Adelaide Oval.The cessation of social sports includes all domestic and internationalcricket matches and other events held at Adelaide Oval.The SACA regrets having to make the decision and, as an alternative,will endeavour to establish supervised sessions for children within theFavell-Dansie Indoor Centre at Adelaide Oval for international cricketmatches.Chief Executive Officer of the SACA, Mr Mike Deare, said the decisionwas one which has ended a much-loved tradition at the Oval.”The significant increases in public liability insurance has,regrettably, left us with no choice but to end the playing of all socialsports within the Adelaide Oval grounds. As an alternative, we aim toprovide cricket sessions within our indoor centre during internationalgames.””The SACA remains committed to encouraging people, particularlychildren, to enjoy the game of cricket, however, at all times, thesafety of our patrons remains our highest priority.”Details about cricket sessions for children during the upcoming OrangeTest match at Adelaide Oval will be announced in the coming weeks.

The England batsman Mark Butcher says that his knee injury makes him no more than “50-50″ for the third and final npower Test against Sri Lanka, which starts at Old Trafford in a week’s time.Butcher, 29, underwent a scan on the injury yesterday, but no acute cartilage damage has been found. The specialist has said he can play at Old Trafford if he feels fit enough.”I am going up to Old Trafford with a view to playing,” the Surrey left hander said. “But I would say I am no more than 50-50 at the moment. It would be a shame to miss out but these things happen and you can’t do anything about them.”The damage is in the joint between the two bones and it needs to be clearedup. So if I played in the next Test I would have it done in the break betweenthis series and the Test series that follows with India.”Butcher made a century in the first Test at Lord’s and 94 in the second at Edgbaston, but is unlikely to be included in England’s squad for the one-day triangular tournament which follows the Test series.The expected recovery time from this type of surgery is between three andfour weeks, which should enable Butcher to be fit for the first Test againstIndia at Lord’s, which begins on July 25, regardless of when he has the operation.

KINGSTON – In the face of conflicting stories over the status of a recurring knee injury, Dale Richards revealed here yesterday that he was keen on playing in Barbados’ Red Stripe Bowl semifinal against Trinidad and Tobago on Friday.A determination of his fitness, however, will be made today after Barbados’ team management receives a final report from Dr Aksai Mansingh, a Jamaica-based doctor who has often been retained by the West Indies Cricket Board.Richards, converted to an opening batsman for this tournament, was unable to take his place in the Barbados team for the weekend’s back-to-back matches and it was suspected from as early as Friday that he would be returning home and would take no further part in the competition.Amidst all the uncertainty, the 26-year-old old NATIONSPORT yesterday that if it were left to him, he would walk out to the middle at Kaiser Sports Club come Friday."I am feeling alright and, most likely, I think I will be able to play," he said."The knee is feeling a little better than it was in the last two days. I am a bit stiff, otherwise I am feeling a bit better. Maybe the body wanted some rest."Richards first suffered a recurrence of the injury while batting against the Leewards XI at the Melbourne Club ground last week Sunday when he was run out for 81. It followed an unbeaten 121 in the opening match against the University of the West Indies at Chedwin Park two days earlier.He believes the knee is responding well to treatment from team physiotherapist Phyllis Burnett. The treatment includes daily icing and the use of an ultra-sound machine.This latest injury to Richards is on the same right knee that bothered him two years ago when he was forced to have an operation.There was some speculation here over the last few days that he might need surgery again, but it was too early to determine."I do not feel it is going to stop me, but we have to wait and see. It won’t be 100 per cent, but I will try," Richards added.Barbados manager Tony Howard was also upbeat that Richards would be available for this weekend’s matches."Initially, the idea was that if Dale couldn’t make it, we would send him home but we will get a final report from Dr Mansingh tomorrow [today] and see where we will go," Howard said."Dale is the kind of man that you would like to keep. He has to decide if he can make it. By Friday, it will be almost two weeks that he hasn’t played. The injury may be at a stage, in my personal opinion, where he might be able to say I can make this."

The final of the Busta International Shield got underway on Thursday at the Sabina Park, Jamaica, but the home crowd had little to cheer about as batsman after batsman got a good start and then squandered it, mostly to Mahendra Nagamootoo.Guyana skipper Carl Hooper won the toss and elected to field first, but a 102-run stand for the first wicket threatened to make him regret his decision. The fast bowlers were wayward and expensive, as was the wicket-keeping. As many as 20 byes and 14 no-balls contributed towards an abysmal tally of 48 extras in the 99 overs that were bowled on the day.Chris Gayle, having made 41 off 104 balls with two fours and a six, was the first to fall, caught by Ramnaresh Sarwan off the bowling off Nagamootoo. His partner, Leon Garrick, departed seven runs later, caught by Hooper off the very same bowler for 36.After Wavell Hinds stuck around for 76 balls to score 17, Jamaica were in desperate need of a solid partnership. Keith Hibbert and skipper Robert Samuels provided that in part with a 66-run stand, although Jamaica could have done with a lot more. Hibbert ground out 44 in 168 balls with two fours, while Samuels’ 34 came at a marginally quicker pace, off 87 balls with four fours.The partnership was broken when Nagamootoo trapped Samuels in front in the 84th over. Just four balls later, the leggie removed the dangerous Ricardo Powell for a duck.Hibbert’s resistance ended when Reon King had him caught by Neil McGarrell in the final over of the day. Jamaica ended the day on 229 for six, with Gareth Breese (eight off 51 balls) and Ryan Cunningham (one off two balls) at the crease.The star bowler for the visitors was Nagamootoo, who took four for 71 in a marathon performance of 32 overs. His efforts on a slow pitch made up for waywardness elsewhere in the Guyanese bowling attack, and he will be Hooper’s trump card in Jamaica’s second innings as well.

The United Cricket Board has refuted a demand made by Hansie Cronje’s lawyer Leslie Sackstein that no South African cricket officials attend the funeral of the former South African captain Hansie Cronje in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.According to United Cricket Board spokesperson Bronwyn Wilkinson, Sackstein made the demand in a fax to UCB chief executive Gerald Majola on Monday. In the fax, Sackstein, who claimed to be acting for Cronje’s widow Bertha and the Cronje family, asked Majola to see to it that no UCB executive member nor World Cup executive director Ali Bacher attends the funeral.Sackstein represented Cronje during his appearance before the King Commission of Inquiry into Match-Fixing and his subsequent appeal against his life ban in the Pretoria High Court.However, Wilkinson said that the UCB had been assured by a representative of the Cronje family that anyone was free to attend the funeral. She said that several UCB members intended to pay their respects to Cronje and that a number of Cronje’s former South African team-mates, including captain Shaun Pollock who is to fly to South Africa from England, were expected to attend the funeral.Cronje died in a plane crash on Saturday.

Against the background that the last two encounters of the Cable &Wireless One-Day series are purely for academic interest, SouthAfrican captain Shaun Pollock feels the international calendar ispacked with too many matches in the shorter form of the game.But his highly-professional outfit, holders of the Cable & WirelessOne-Day Trophy following a fourth successive victory against WestIndies at Kensington Oval on Wednesday, still plan to maintain animpressive winning streak in the sixth and penultimate match of theseries at the Queen’s Park Oval today.There is a lot of one-day cricket. I won’t deny that, Pollock saidyesterday with the knowledge that his side goes into today’s matchwith an unassailable 4-1 series lead.There probably is too much in world cricket, but that’s what bringsthe money in and that’s what brings the people to come and watch.It is a hard balance to find, but you would think that maybe theyshould cut back a little bit on one-day cricket.In recent years, the international schedule has become increasinglydemanding and it has not been helped by the scheduling of a number oflimited-overs competitions.In the space of two months in 1999, the West Indies went through aperiod in which went on a globe-trotting merry-go-round in which theyplayed about 20 matches in Singapore, Sharjah, Canada and Bangladesh.West Indies captain, Carl Hooper, who was in the internationalwilderness at the time following his retirement, is however not tooconcerned about the packed schedule.Bangladesh’s recent admission as a full International Council Cricket(ICC) member and Kenya’s desire to join them will make things eventougher, Hooper said.It’s only going to get worse and we’ve got to prepare ourselves forit, the West Indies captain said.As a result of your full-time profession, you probably might havehardly a break, so you’ve got to be able to pace yourself well andbecome a bit more professional in whatever you do.It something I suppose the ICC will look at, but there is nothing thatwe can do about it now.There has never been an influx of limited-overs matches in theCaribbean, but in recent seasons, authorities have scheduled a fewmore matches.In the past, a series of five matches was the norm, but seven werescheduled in 1999 when Australia were here and there were nine in athree-nation tournament last year that involved Pakistan and Zimbabwe.The current series, which also involves seven, moves into thehomestretch today with the West Indies seeking to regain lost prideafter they were thoroughly outplayed in Antigua, Grenada and Barbados.We’ve still got a lot of pride to play for. We’d like to win the lasttwo matches, but we are going to take one game at a time, Hooper said.We’re disappointed, but we realise that we’ve still got to pickourselves up and go and try to win games.Hooper, however, tried to be matter-of-fact in trying to makepredictions.There was a lot of talk when we lost in Antigua that we would bounceback in Grenada and we would bounce back and bounce back and bounceback, he said.I’m being realistic. If we win tomorrow (today), it’s great, but whatwe want to do is to try to put up a good show.I don’t think we’ve been playing to our full potential. We are abetter side than the results have shown.The recent South Africa victories by the commanding margins of eightwickets, 132 runs, eight wickets and seven wickets have givenPollock’s team a record of 14 wins in their last 16 matches.And the captain does not want it spoilt.As a side we pride ourselves on our performance and in the way that weplay, so we’re going out to try and make sure that we win, he said.There is no doubt about that. We want to end the tour on a winningnote.Even though the series has been wrapped up, an almost capacity crowdis expected at the Caribbean’s biggest cricket venue which canaccommodate about 25 000 spectators.Late yesterday evening, it was reported that 95 per cent of the groundwas sold and only tickets for the grounds remained available.

An ageing team? A crisis on the cards?

Nathan Hauritz

It may have been a popular refrain 12 months ago but predictions of Australia’s impending decline don’t really look like materialising right now.More to the point, the legion of critics who pointed back then to an apparent lack of emerging Australian talent seem to have been decidedly out of order.Tasmania’s Shane Watson is already beginning to take great delight not only in dismantling such theories but also in providing the prospect that Australia may now have the kind of all-round asset it has not possessed in 40 years.New South Wales batsman Michael Clarke, South Australian paceman Paul Rofe and Tasmanian wicketkeeper Sean Clingeleffer are others among a rising crop of youngsters who look destined for outstanding careers.And, given that the most successful off spinner in the country’s international history played his last match a century ago, it might be argued that the rapid development of Queensland’s Nathan Hauritz bears as much significance as any.Having just been included in a senior national squad for the first time in his career, Hauritz is about to embark on a journey that will see him join Watson and another 13 of his countrymen in South Africa and Zimbabwe for impending limited-overs tours.And, while his base of only seven first-class and 16 domestic one-day games may seem a shallow pool of experience upon which to draw, he looks an outstanding selection. For he already carries with him a cool persona, resourceful skills as a lower order batsman, and a repertoire of deliveries that imply that the future of Australian slow bowling might well be in safe hands.Right now, Hauritz offers living cricketing proof that a lot can happen in a short space of time. Quite apart from helping confound those expectations about Australian cricket’s future, he has even surprised himself in bypassing the low-key introduction to elite level cricket that he had expected.”Never in my wildest dreams had I thought about playing for Australia for about the next five years. Just to listen to it all (and) to take in the idea that people are talking about me playing for my country has been great, very exciting,” said Hauritz to CricInfo earlier this season.”But I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. Shane Warne only came on to the scene when he was around 23 and spinners always seem to mature later than other players.””I’m conscious of the fact that Queensland generally hasn’t produced a lot of top-line spin bowlers over the years as well.”Through it all, 20-year-old Hauritz still appears remarkably settled for a young cricketer. Particularly one coming off a stunning domestic limited-overs season that yielded 18 wickets at an average of 21.16 and culminated in a haul of 4/47 in last month’s ING Cup Final.Delightfully, he still regards himself, in his own words, as “a nobody” and as being very much in the midst of a journey of discovery.”In the one-dayers with Queensland, I’ve found my role’s been made fairly realistic for me and therefore reasonably simple to perform so far. I’ve needed to bowl accurately and at the stumps and change the pace. But I haven’t really needed to spin the ball a lot in those games.”My patience still needs to be improved; that’s probably my biggest problem at the moment.”In junior cricket, you tend to look at picking up a wicket every five or ten overs; when you get to this level, you’re up against much better players and they just wait for the bad ball.”Though keen not to overplay his triumphs, Hauritz’s list of accomplishments at junior level offers a powerful indication of what might await. Remarkably, he was a member of state underage sides in every year that followed his 12th birthday and he quickly became a regular in a range of Australian under-17, under-19 and development squads too.He also enjoyed stints as the under-19 captain of both his state and his country, winning the respect and admiration of players, coaches and administrators alike with his acumen as a leader. Any spectator who witnessed the imaginative, attacking declaration that helped land Queensland an unexpected victory in the final of the national under-19 championships in 2000-01 is just as unlikely to have been left with anything but a favourable impression.”Things took off once I made a Queensland under-13 team. The year before, I had an ok year but I didn’t make the side I wanted to make. From then on, I guess it’s kept going and going and going,” he says of the developments that lie behind his graduation to a post at the head of a dynamic new pack of spinners in Australia.”I think it’s really good, really healthy, now that a lot of young spinners from similar age groups are all starting to break through into the first-class scene at around the same time.”Obviously, there’s a lot of focus on Cameron White because he’s a leg spinner from Victoria but there are others like Xavier Doherty and Aaron O’Brien also starting to make their way into teams now.”It’s very exciting for the future of spin bowling in Australia.”Almost from the moment of his domestic debut at this time last year, Hauritz’s approach has been all about building on his early successes. And making a seamless transition between youth and senior ranks in the shift away from the pinnacle of underage cricket toward the mountain that leads to international selection and potential stardom.Also in focus has been the idea of adding a harder and more practical edge to his game. To help him, among other things, more easily find and beat the edge of the bat. Learning to outwit batsmen has been one of the primary areas of concentration; another has been imparting greater turn to his deliveries.”During my junior career, I was never a big spinner of the ball. (Queensland coach) Bennett King said to me ‘listen, it doesn’t matter how accurate you are, you’ve got to be able to spin the ball when you get to the next level’.”So I’ve been doing a lot of work on learning to spin the ball further. As well as keeping it accurate.”This year is when that’s all started to come together for me.”Over recent months, the reward for his toil has been reflected in his rise to the status of a permanent fixture in Queensland’s first eleven. For the last fortnight, he has additionally been the owner of a much-coveted berth among the company of the nation’s very best limited-overs players.Like former state and national underage teammate Watson, the quietly-spoken Hauritz also owes his first appearance in a senior Australian squad to the foresight of his country’s selection panel and its new, unshakable belief in youth.Though the doomsayers’ clarion cries may suggest he doesn’t have it in him to make it to the top, it seems reasonable to assume that his talents will speak even more loudly than is hoped.

Events have conspired against Queensland wicketkeeper Wade Seccombe many times over the course of the last decade. But, with his addition to Australia’s Test and One-Day International squads to tour England, today has become his long overdue day.Seccombe, 29, has a glittering record at interstate level behind him but felt that his hopes of representing Australia had been extinguished after New South Wales gloveman Brad Haddin was twice chosen ahead of him to deputise for Adam Gilchrist in recent months.”This selection is more a surprise than anything. I’m extremely excited about what lies ahead but, at the moment, I’m just totally overwhelmed with the selection and obviously very proud and very honoured,” he said.”There’s always media speculation and a lot of things out of one’s control so I never worry too much (about conjecture over selection decisions). It was an absolute surprise.”In naming their squads early last month, the four-man Australian selection panel had originally elected to leave the onus of wicketkeeping on the three-month tour of England purely to Gilchrist. But this meant that their vice-captain was potentially confronted with the prospect of appearing in at least twenty matches. It also ensured that the Australians were set to defy a longstanding convention of taking at least two recognised wicketkeepers with them on an Ashes visit.According to the panel’s chairman, Trevor Hohns, the reasoning behind that strategy was always likely to come under review and today’s announcement is the result.An outstanding technician behind the stumps and a useful lower order batsman, Seccombe has been an integral member of Queensland teams over recent seasons. His average of close to five dismissals a match (his current tally stands at 339 dismissals from 69 first-class appearances) is easily the most productive of any wicketkeeper in Queensland’s first-class history and he jointly holds the record for the most number of dismissals effected by a wicketkeeper in a single Australian domestic summer. He has also amassed more than 2,000 runs with the bat.But, until the retirement of the former custodian, he was forced to live largely in the shadow of Queensland and Australian icon, Ian Healy. It was not until the 1999-2000 season that he inherited a full-time role at first-class level for the first time and even that elevation did not arrive without the trauma of a broken wrist and a broken collarbone along the way. More recently, even his excellent run of success in domestic cricket did not yield anything beyond two Australia ‘A’ caps by way of higher honours.”The last season or two, I probably thought that was the case,” he said of the assessment that an international call-up might have been set to permanently elude him.But Seccombe has always remained a driven cricketer, nonetheless.”It hasn’t been hard to remain motivated. Obviously, the wicketkeeper’s role is pivotal in a game of cricket but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the successes Queensland has achieved and that’s been the driving force behind things: because I’ve been a part of such a successful team.”Haddin, a more aggressive batsman and six years Seccombe’s junior, was preferred for a one-day contest against Zimbabwe in January and then covered briefly for an ailing Gilchrist on the national team’s recent visit to India. Seccombe was also narrowly pipped for a similar role to the one for which he has now been chosen when Victoria’s Darren Berry was brought in ahead of him as a late replacement on the 1997 Ashes tour.Like Berry, Seccombe was playing League cricket in England at the time and remains keenly aware of the potentially heavy workload of an Ashes trip.”All the hard yards that I’ve put in and the constant work has paid off to a big degree today. But a lot of hard work is ahead of me from now on. This is definitely not a time to sit back and relax at all; it’s probably a time to go even harder with everything.””Should any sort of opportunity arise (in England), I’ve now got to be ready to take it.”

ScorecardTim Ambrose was at the crease when rain and bad light brought an early finish•Getty Images

Warwickshire remain favourites to win the 2012 County Championship despite putting in one of their least-impressive performances of the summer. Having left themselves an enormous task by taking 91 overs to bowl out Middlesex at a cost of 412 runs, the likelihood of their chasing down 367 from 83 overs to win always seemed remote. Yet they cannot have imagined they would struggle to secure a draw.In the end they probably had the weather to thank for sparing them a defeat. Five down when rain in mid-afternoon caused a loss of 16 overs, they were 152 for 7 when bad light 20 minutes into the final hour ended the match, with a minimum of 8.2 overs still to be bowled.Nonetheless, thanks to rain denying Sussex a win at Taunton, Warwickshire increase their lead from 11 points to 12. They have three matches to play, second-placed Sussex have two. Nottinghamshire, in third place and also with three matches left, are a further 15 points behind. They are at Edgbaston next week for a match that could be the title decider.Although Boyd Rankin and Chris Wright took five wickets each in the second innings – sharing 15 in the match – the Warwickshire bowling lacked discipline overall, with too many boundaries conceded and a high count in no-balls. The batting was not particularly impressive, either, with a couple of exceptions. Afterwards, director of cricket, Ashley Giles, conceded that his players might have lost a little intensity, perhaps thinking the job was already done.”We have slightly lost focus and for us we were a bit ragged,” Giles said. “We lost our discipline a bit with the ball. There were too many boundaries and no-balls crept in.”With the bat we were 223 for three in the first innings and then lost five wickets in an afternoon session. What we have done well this year is that someone has come and seen the new ball off, we have consolidated and gone again.”We didn’t do that and that was a bit of sloppiness. We need to re-focus on the day-to-day stuff because I think our eyes moved too far towards the middle of September rather than what is happening now. Middlesex played very well and will feel hard done by but perhaps we have played well often enough this season to have earned that bit of luck.”That was by far our worst week in the Championship this season but somehow we have got through it and actually stretched our lead slightly. We need to play better than that if we are to win the title but we have dodged a bullet and I think we will be all right now.”Resuming on 351 for 5, Middlesex were already 305 in front but at that stage were more interested in insuring themselves against defeat and batted on. If they had a declaration in mind, it probably would have come with another 50 or so added but in allowing the innings to follow its natural course they reached that point anyway, more or less.The new ball was available and Warwickshire took it immediately. They had success in the second over with it when Wright had Dawid Malan caught behind for 140, three short of his career best. But another half-a-dozen expensive overs passed before Steven Crook was caught behind edging a pull shot. He and Gareth Berg put on 42 in that time but the last four Middlesex wickets went in consecutive overs. Berg’s 73 contained 10 boundaries, which was an accurate reflection of how often Middlesex were offered scoring opportunities.Warwickshire probably never seriously entertained pursuing their target and after losing both openers inside the first six overs were certainly not interested. Ian Westwood, after his first-innings century, perished for a duck, caught well by Adam Rossington, diving low to his left behind the stumps. Varun Chopra simply played a poor shot, top-edging a pull that looped easily to mid-on.William Porterfield and Darren Maddy, who have struggled for runs all season, did themselves no favours as Giles weighs up his options for next week. Porterfield propped forward to the first ball bowled by Ravi Patel, the young left-arm spinner, missed it and was stumped. Maddy was leg-before wicket playing across a straight one from Berg.Rikki Clarke, only half-forward, was lbw to Toby Roland-Jones and at 86 for 5 Warwickshire were in such trouble that they were grateful for once that the showers threatened in the weather forecast duly turned up.When they had passed, there were still 36 overs left in the day, more than enough time, it seemed, for Middlesex to give themselves an unexpected boost if the pattern continued.By then the light was poor and the umpires made it clear that Middlesex would have to use only their slow bowlers if they wanted to stay on the field. In the event, Patel bowled with a good deal more confidence than he had in the first innings and claimed a significant wicket when Jim Troughton, who was by then Warwickshire’s best hope for a steady hand, was surprised by a ball that bounced and turned and gloved a catch that Rossington took on the leg side.Tim Ambrose defied the pain of a sore knuckle that had required a precautionary trip to the X-ray department earlier in the day but Ian Blackwell increased the tension when he carelessly drove one straight back to Patel, after which Warwickshire greeted a further deterioration in the light with some relief.