TCP VERDICT

It must feel just like Groundhog Day for Warwickshire.

They arrived in Chelmsford with three innings defeats in five Championship matches in the deficit column – and it didn’t get much better.

From the moment Warwickshire lost the toss, they were on a downward slope. Ravi Bopara and James Foster both scored centuries in Essex’s massive first-innings total that kept the visitors in the field for five full sessions under an unrelenting sun.

Then, when they batted, they came up against Simon Harmer on a wearing pitch, used for the Royal London Cup semifinal against Notts last week, and pressed back into service after the prepared wicket cracked up in the heat over the weekend.

Harmer took Essex-best figures of 6-92 and Warwickshire had to follow on, just as they had at Southampton at the start of the month.

Groundhog Day? No, says Kiwi Jeetan Patel, who led a degree of resistance with bat and ball. “But it’s a trap teams can fall into in the position we’re in.”

Patel bowled a similar marathon spell to fellow spinner Harmer for less flattering figures of 4-138, and was the only batsman to go after Essex’s Kolpak in a run-a-ball 71.

Groundhog Day?Yes, it was Harmer again doing the damage in the second innings, too.