Chopras slow sizzle puts heat on Middlesex

London Leprechaun writes about a less than enthralling day at Uxbrisge. A short report for a day that felt a lot longer.

Put a flat Uxbridge pitch , a depleted Middlesex attack, a scorching hot day and the Warwickshire batting mindset together,  and what do you get? Three identikit sessions which went somewhat like this.

We bowled steadily and kept going all day;

There were some early nicks and a few edges; we dropped a couple of catches – the number is in dispute and a couple at least were very difficult; we did not drop any in the last session;

Warwickshire made no attempt to up the scoring rate except for a very brief few overs after tea – so the score limped along at less than three an over all day;

Chopra looked elegantly slow;

Time for a rest

Patel bowled a very long spell from the Gatting Way End and was tight, accurate and economical.  It was such a long spell that he needed to sit down in between balls when the new ball was taken;

Time for a random conversation

There were occasional boundaries all day – a few hit hard enough to  jump over the boundary edge and wake up dozing spectators and distract them from random conversations including Andy Murray, Scottish flags, local bus services, the great improvement in the catering at the ground; a new ice cream seller,  and why there were so many planes coming into Northolt- they can’t all have been returning from Jordan;

Other things that happened during the day:

Corey Collymore hurt himself falling over a ball on the bumpy outfield and did not bowl again after tea;

Both our wickets came from mistimed hooks, which probably put Warwickshire back in their shell;

Toby Roland Jones and Neil Dexter both fell over bowling from the Pavilion End – TRJ went off for a bit and did not look over happy towards the end of the day’, There were long discussions with the umpire about the bowlers’ footholds but no action;

Our bowling rate was so good that we had to slow things down considerably to make sure we did not bowl more overs than we needed.  This was not appreciated/understood by some spectators.

It could be a long hard day tomorrow if our main strike bowlers are not fit.