WAGH SPARES WARWICKSHIRE’S BLUSHES by Marcus Hook
Surrey v Warwickshire 342-8.

Warwickshire spurned the chance of taking the upper hand against the county champions yesterday. After Adam Hollioake failed, yet again, to win his first toss of the new season, the visitors elected to bat and, by lunch, had raced to 140 without loss. The less said about the middle session the better. Nevertheless, Mark Wagh came through with an unbeaten 91 to spare Warwickshire’s blushes.

After looking at one stage as though he was in danger of running out of partners, Wagh has the chance of converting his responsible, yet refined knock into a hundred. It would be no less than the 26-year-old deserves. When the ball was there to be hit he drove and pulled with panache, striking a total of fourteen boundaries.

Following reports of dressing-room disquiet over Surrey’s selection policy, the home side showed five changes from the team that drew against Lancashire a fortnight ago.

Again, it was debatable whether everyone was pleased, but on balance the line-up did appear more solid (or should one say even more solid) than it did previously. Out went Batty, Thorpe, Clarke, Salisbury and Murtagh, while in came Butcher, Stewart, Azhar Mahmood, Bicknell and Ormond.

With Warwickshire’s attack missing seamers Melvyn Betts (stomach bug) and Neil Carter (back injury), not to mention overseas fast bowler Michael Clark (groin), it was important the visitors made full use of an excellent Oval pitch. Other than when Tony Frost was dropped, on 26, at second slip by Butcher off Ormond in the 12th over, Warwickshire made an untroubled start to the day’s proceedings.

The 21st over – Azhar Mahmood’s fourth – saw Frost follow up two off-side fours with a pulled six. After reaching his half-century in just 69 deliveries with a cover drive, the keeper cum part-time opener was pulling again when the Pakistani was launched a dozen rows back into the seating next to the main scoreboard.

Nick Knight, whose feet took a while to get moving, followed Frost’s lead and collected his fifty on the stroke of lunch off 107 balls.

In the fourth over after the interval Frost brought up the visitors’ 150 with two boundaries in three deliveries from Bicknell, the first punched over mid-off and the second cover driven with an authority that suggested he was set for a third career century. However, two overs later, he made the mistake of cutting the 34-year-old all-rounder to point, where Hollioake took the simplest of chances.

Martin Bicknell claimed his second wicket in fifteen balls when he had Knight lazily clipping the ball to square leg. As well as producing the scalps of both openers Bicknell’s second spell, lasting eight overs, gave away just 13 runs.

Bicknell was relieved at the Pavilion End by Alex Tudor, who had a hand in the next three wickets.

Ian Bell, who played at and missed his first ball and edged his second in front of third slip, was out to a top-edged pull; allowing Rikki Clarke, on the field as substitute, to play some part in the game.

Tudor was then gifted two wickets in five deliveries. Jim Troughton, who looked in top form, trod on his stumps trying to work the ball to mid-on for what would have been an easy single, before Dominic Ostler hung out his bat and played on.

With tea in sight, Wagh reached his fifty in 98 deliveries by flicking Hollioake backward of square leg for four. But then Saqlain Mushtaq, who conceded 15 runs off his first over of the day, invited Dougie Brown into the sweep and the Scot was caught down the leg side.

After the break Mark Wagh and Ashley Giles added 51 in three quarters of an hour before Jimmy Ormond dug one in and got the Warwickshire skipper swinging to the long leg boundary.

Mohammed Sheikh profited from sweeping Saqlain, but looked much less assured against the seam of Ormond, at whom he was driving when Alec Stewart pulled off an energetic catch in front of Brown at first slip.

Neil Smith, perhaps sensing that the new ball was about to be taken, struck three fours off Tudor’s last over of the day.

The new ‘cherry’ was only three deliveries old when bad light called a halt to proceedings at 6.32pm.

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