Warwickshire with 7 second innings wickets remaining lead Nottinghamshire by 229 runs
Warwickshire took a giant stride towards cementing their position in the top division of the Championship next season by dominating the second day of their match against Nottinghamshire.
Victory in this game, against another opponent fighting for survival, would all but seal their position. The more optimistic supporters might even savour a late-season bid towards the top three positions.
Central to Warwickshire's performance yesterday was the bowling of Alex Loudon. He has endured a tough time of late, but fully deserved the sixth five-wicket haul of his career - and his second of the season - with an intelligent and skilful display of bowling.
Certainly Nottingham-shire's reckless batting played into Loudon's hands. But to defeat a batsman of Stephen Fleming's class in the manner in which he did was testament to significant ability.
An England call-up could never be anything but a thrill, but to some extent it is a shame that Loudon was recognised so early in his career. Although he is 26 next month, he has played relatively little cricket and his game is still very much at the developmental stage. And premature elevation can sometimes be fatal; just ask Jim Troughton.
So too is premature elevation to captaincy, as Michael Powell might reflect. Talk linking Loudon with the role is unhelpful. A surprisingly diffident individual, Loudon has
plenty on his plate already. While he may well develop into an excellent leader in years to come, his long-term future is best served by a prolonged period as apprentice.
Loudon showed last year that he possess real talent with bat and ball. This season, however, he has rarely looked comfortable with either part of his game. His bowling action has appeared to change by the delivery and he has found little turn, even on surfaces as helpful as Tunbridge Wells. Though the player denies it, the suspicion remains that the England management's inter-ference with him was far from helpful.
Yesterday, however, he
bowled very well indeed. Building on an improved performance against West Indies A, he overcame an unimpressive opening, to hasten a collapse where the hosts lost four wickets for 12 runs.
Neil Carter also bowled impressively. He found the edge of Jason Gallian's bat with his first delivery, angled across the right-hander, and was then gifted the wicket of Darren Bicknell, hanging his bat out at a short delivery.
The ease with which Fleming and David Alleyne batted gave little indication of the collapse to follow, however. The pair added 114 for the third-wicket, with both men timing the ball sweetly and the
bowlers finding little move-ment in the air or off the pitch.
Fleming's back foot drives were a delight, but Alleyne lost little by comparison. He took ten off Paul Harris' first over, skipping down the wicket and lofting a straight six, and scoring all but 11 of his runs in boundaries.
His aggression was to be his undoing, however. Loudon saw Alleyne venturing down the pitch and fired the ball down the leg side to allow Tim Ambrose to complete the stumping.
Then came an outrageous moment of fortune. David Hussey, in prolific form of late, drove his first ball straight to Heath Streak at extra cover
only to see Fleming setting off for an impossible single. Although Streak fumbled, and momentarily lost the ball, Hussey had given up hope of making the run, and Streak recovered in time to throw to the bowler's end.
But if there was some luck involved in that dismissal, the next was the result of pure class. Fleming, in imperious mood, was defeated by a sharp off-break that floated towards leg stump, but spun past the edge to strike the back leg in front of off stump.
Mark Ealham rashly drove to cover, Paul Franks was trapped on the back foot when he played around an arm ball, Samit Patel chipped to mid wicket [2014] where he was brilliantly caught [2014] and Graeme Swann was bowled by a perfect ball that drew him forward, beat the outside edge and clipped the off bail.
In all Nottinghamshire had lost seven wickets for the addition of just 53 runs in 19 overs and despite some resistance from the final pair, they fell 24-runs short of their follow-on target.
Reasoning that batting last will be fraught with danger, Warwickshire passed up the chance of enforcing the follow-on, however. A fourth innings target of 350 is likely to prove more than enough on a pitch where the occasional ball is already keeping impossibly low, though the visitors cannot be expected to self-destruct quite so obligingly a second time.
Warwickshire must also be careful not to allow Nottinghamshire back into the game. There were echoes of the poor second innings display against Sussex as the hosts lost three wickets in the last hour, and they will be looking to add at least 150 more today.
Luke Parker, promoted to open the batting in the absence of the sick Mark Wagh, was soon undone by inswing, while Ian Westwood's fluent cameo was halted by low bounce.
The final wicket was more avoidable. Jimmy Anyon, on nightwatchman's duty, inexplicably took a single to the first ball of the final over only to see a nervous Jonathan Trott prod the final ball of the day to short leg. n Tim Groenewald pressed his claim for a first-team recall with seven for 47 on the first day of Warwickshire's Second XI Championship match against Northamptonshire at Stratford.
Groenewald, finding some swing movement and bowling a tight line, helped dismiss the visitors for 203, despite an eight-wicket partnership of 77. Dougie Brown (one for 31) and Adam Shantry (one for 55) were the other wicket takers.
In reply, Warwickshire lost Navdeep Poonia and Jim Troughton early. Tony Frost (51) and Moeen Ali (58) rebuilt, however, and though both fell before the close, Brown (29 not out) and Groenewald (one not out) took the hosts to stumps on 176 for five.
Meanwhile, Headingley will be the venue for the Second XI Trophy final between Warwickshire and Yorkshire on September 4, with a reserve day if needed.
