Sport Don’t write Bears off, warns Bell after super first victory
DEFIANT Bears skipper Ian Bell said after his side’s dramatic first Championship win of the season: “Don’t write us off – we believe we can still stay up.”
In a remarkable end to a dramatic match, Warwickshire skittled Middlesex for 136 at Lord’s to claim the win by a thumping 190-run margin.
Chris Woakes, completing a successful comeback from a two-month injury lay-off, took 3 for 38 as he and Keith Barker, who snapped up the first three wickets to fall and finished with 3 for 21, left the Middlesex second innings in ruins.
And all this, on a humiliating day for the champions, after Barker and Chris Wright had earlier taken their unlikely ninth wicket partnership to 97 as Warwickshire, who resumed on 293 for 8, reached 361 in their own second innings to set Middlesex 327 to win on a pitch which had seemingly flattened out following the opening day carnage of 20 wickets.
Captain Bell said: “We believe we can still stay up. We can beat anybody on our day and we are especially dangerous now because a lot of
people have written us off as being relegated.
“We have a bit of a new-look team now and there’s a new energy in the dressing room. Matt Lamb, Ryan Sidebottom, Andy Umeed and Dom Sibley all played their part in this win and we have some proper players who have come in and can help to take this team forward. We are trying to shape a side not necessarily for this season but for the future, but there is no reason we can’t start again now.
“It was great to see Chris Woakes come through this game so strongly, although I think he needs six more weeks with us before playing for England again! Seriously, he was a bit rusty at the start of the match but there were some good signs today when he began to hit his lengths. He did well with ball and bat.
“We might have got the better of the conditions over the three days, but it was a fine performance to come back from being bowled out for 126 on day one and a lot of players stood up”
Middlesex, it is true, were hampered by injuries to openers Nick Gubbins and Sam Robson – Gubbins was forced to come in at No 8 after tearing a hamstring in the field – but the way both their batting and bowling fell away in this game will be of great concern to them.
Warwickshire, meanwhile, though they may well remain bottom of Division One, are now only 31 points behind Middlesex – who began this game in fifth place – with five matches remaining for both counties. Barker ended up on 62 not out from 109 balls, after resuming on 30 and his stand with Wright, who made an 83-ball 41 before being caught behind off Steven Finn, flourished in a morning session in which the Middlesex bowlers huffed and puffed to little effect.
Spinner Nathan Sowter bowled last man Ryan Sidebottom for 1, but by then the damage done was not just to Middlesex’s morale. Gubbins, in attempting to take a sprawling catch off a top-edged Barker hook, hurt himself so badly that he had to be helped from the field.
Gubbins was unable to open, meaning Nick Compton was promoted to partner Robson, who used a runner as he made 19 despite a leg injury before being first out.
Middlesex were 20 without loss at lunch but that proved only to be the calm before the storm. The headlong collapse began at the start of the second over after the interval with Robson pinned leg-before by Barker who then, later in the same over, had Stevie Eskinazi taken at second slip for 2.
Left-armer Barker struck again in his next over, this time going around the wicket to surprise Compton with a nasty lifter that he touched to keeper Tim Ambrose to go for 3.
And 28 for 3 became 28 for 4 when Woakes nipped one off the seam to have John Simpson leg-before for 4. Ryan Higgins was also leg-before to Woakes for 5 in the England allrounder’s next over, and the same man bowled Middlesex captain James Franklin for 1.
From 45 for 6 there were a few defiant blows from Sowter, who had been joined by Gubbins and runner, before his 37 ended when he turned the first ball of Sidebottom’s second over straight into the hands of short leg.
Middlesex’s tail was cleaned up by off spinner Jeetan Patel and right-arm seamer Sidebottom, who added 2 for 41 to his first innings’ 4 for 29 and completed a memorable championship debut by winning a leg-before appeal against Gubbins on 15 to finish the match. Patel had Tom Helm taken at first slip for 15 and bowled Tim Murtagh for 0 to give himself figures of 2 for 19.
A last wicket frolic by Finn and Gubbins, who added a quickfire 48 with Finn unbeaten on 31, provided scant consolation for Middlesex.