First day: Lancashire, with nine first-innings wickets in hand, trail Warwickshire by 166 runs
It is perhaps just as well that last night's 'celebrity' cricket forum at Edgbaston was cancelled. Had it gone ahead, Warwickshire's hierarchy could have been in for a stormy ride.
After the 'high' of Saturday's victory over Durham, Warwickshire were quickly pulled back to earth as their top-order was blown away by a fine display of swing bowling by Dominic Cork.
For the fifth time in six matches Warwickshire failed to surpass 250 in their first innings. It is a grim statistic and tells much of the story of a disappointing season so far.
Certainly there were some soft dismissals from the top order and Warwickshire's total is below par but, on this occasion, things were not quite as bad as they seemed.
There were mitigating factors. An unusually green pitch, scarcely distinguishable from the outfield, offered copious assistance to swing bowlers and also showed signs of irregular bounce.
Later the strip also offered assistance to the spin of Gary Keedy. It is unlikely to be a high-scoring match, and 275 would have represented a good effort by Warwickshire.
The umpires were not unduly concerned by the pitch but an England and Wales Cricket Board pitch liaison officer will visit Edgbaston today.
Any type of penalty is most unlikely, though Warwickshire's batsmen may wonder quite what they have done to deserve some of the surfaces they are encountering at Edgbaston of late. They may not be worthy of ECB censure but they are not good.
Indeed, there must have been a temptation to insert Lancashire. With the bowlers fresh from their heroics against Durham and the batsmen hardly in top form, such a green pitch did have Warwickshire's leaders scratching their heads.
Perhaps the experiences against Hampshire and Middlesex, against whom Warwickshire inserted and then chased leather, weighed heavy.
Most of all, however, Warwickshire are keen to avoid batting last on a surface that is expected to deteriorate.
Lancashire will not want to be chasing many more than 200 in their second innings.
"We did consider fielding first," Heath Streak, Warwickshire's captain, said. "But, traditionally, batting last here is very hard. We saw that against Durham. The pitch did more than I expected but batting last will not be easy."
Cork ran in hard and utilised the conditions expertly. Not since July 2004 had he claimed five wickets in an innings but he pitched the ball up more than has been his custom and found plentiful swing. He would have caused any team to struggle.
From the depths of 43 for five, however, Warwickshire will feel they recovered well. Leader of the resistance, yet again, was Tony Frost who, having gone more than a year without a half-century, has scored three in three matches and heads the county's averages.
Frost (138 balls, 11 fours) reaped the benefits of playing straighter than his colleagues and simply judged each delivery in its merits.
With the bowlers striving for late swing there were several over-pitched balls and Frost eased a succession of boundaries through the covers before leaning back and pulling anything short.
Jimmy Anyon, who recorded a career-best score, also battled hard for nearly an hour. With Streak (86 balls, two fours), Anyon (47 balls, four fours) posted the highest stand of the innings for the ninth wicket and again showed what could be achieved with graft and patience.
Such efforts, however, serve to highlight the failures of the top order. Warwickshire's much-vaunted batsmen don't seem prepared to graft as hard as is required on such surfaces.
Nick Knight, whose grim run of form shows no sign of abating, failed to move his feet. His last ten Championship innings have garnered a mere 190 runs at 19 and have effectively removed the rock on which the team has been built for a decade.
Mark Wagh's attempted flick to leg, an injudicious shot against a swinging ball, resulted in a leading edge to gully, while Jonathan Trott's poor run (68 in five innings) continued when he left one that seamed in sharply to remove his off stump.
Ian Westwood batted well. He plundered three fours from one over when Tom Smith over-pitched, and left the ball with more certainly than at any time this summer.
It took a fine ball, full and swinging late, to bowl him, before Dougie Brown edged the next one, a beauty that left him. Moeen Ali, softened up with a succession of short balls, attempted to pull a ball too full for the shot.
Jim Troughton resisted grimly. After a 25-over vigil, which included a 39-ball scoreless sequence and one reprieve in the slips, he tried to force one angled across him. Frost's resistance was ended when he slapped a wide long-hop directly to point. Streak edged a sharply-spinning delivery to slip and Lee Daggett was beaten by a quicker one.
All is not lost. Brown, preferred to Daggett with the new ball, removed Mark Chilton with one that nipped back. If Warwickshire utilise the new ball effectively this morning, Lancashire's batsmen will also struggle.
