The dream is still alive
County Championship Division 1 Warwickshire v Somerset Day 4
Warwickshire 419 and 146; Somerset 308 and 258/5. Somerset (21 pts) win by five wickets
It is a fine, breezy, mostly sunny morning in leafy Edgbaston; a morning for batting, to be sure. Somerset need exactly 250 more runs to keep their Championship campaign on track, with all wickets standing. I reckon that the combination of Jeetan Patel and a fourth day pitch makes Warwickshire the favourites, but one of my co-commentators, Phil Britt, who runs the Warwickshire Cricket Museum and knows vastly more about his county's cricket than I do, has Somerset as the likely winners. But, with a minimum of 96 overs to be bowled and the weather set fair, we are going to get a definite result, one way or the other.
Steve Davies and Tom Abell start confidently, It is beginning to look as if Hildreth, for only the second time this season, will not be required to walk out to bat before the end of the 12th over, when Davies goes to drive Hannon-Dalby and succeeds only in nicking a simple catch to Ambrose. So out trudges Hildreth and, again as so often this season, he is soon trudging back again, given LBW to Hannon-Dalby in almost identical fashion to his first innings dismissal. His move up to three in the order has been anything but a success.
Abell is the next to go, beaten by an inswinger from Henry Brookes. So that's 49/3, and Somerset are in trouble. By dint of a lot of application and a good helping of luck, Tom Banton and Babar Azam make it through to lunch, against accurate bowling on a wearing pitch. The cricket hasn't had much in common with their blistering partnerships in the Blast!
It is much the same story for the first 20 minutes or so after lunch, survival the height of both batsmen's ambitions. But then, just as I finish a commentary stint. something changes. Whether it's a conscious decision to take the attack back to the bowlers, or just a couple of loose overs, I'n not sure, but suddenly the runs start to flow. Patel's fifth over goes for 11 runs, including one of Banton's trademark reverse-swept sixes. Given the identity of the bowler it feels almost like a case of lese-majesty! Babar joins in with two handsome boundaries in Brookes' next over, and the shackles have been broken. Banton has reached a hard-working 50 and I am just beginning to permit myself to imagine how victory might feel, when young George Garrett is brought back and in his second over, wins a leg before decision against Babar: 139/4, the game back in the balance.
After his usual uncertain start, George Bartlett is coolness personified. He and Banton look so much alike at the crease from a distance that I'm having to work hard to tell them apart, Banton's characteristic knees-bend as the bowler runs in proving my best guide. Patel brings himself back on, and immediately looks a threat, getting the odd ball to bounce and turn alarmingly. In his 8th over, he gets his reward as the ball loops up from bat to body to Ambrose's right glove as the wicket-keeper dives forward from behind the stumps. Banton is furious, and slouches off, swishing his bat: 170/5, the game far from won.
But the next man in is Dom Bess, and this is just the sort of situation in which this pugnacious cricketer thrives. The Warwickshire bowlers don't help themselves by feeding his favourite cut shots and, with Bartlett going smoothly along at the other end, the runs start to flow once more. When the deficit falls below 50, BBC WM's Mike Perkins effectively concedes defeat and when Bartlett comes down the pitch to drive Patel over the long-on boundary for six, even pessimistic old Gibbo can breathe easily.
As is customary, the 'winning commentator' is on the mic for the winning runs, but not for long, as BBC WM are on the very point of coming over for an up-date. But I'm on for long enough (a) to give the result as 5 wickets (b) to say that Somerset have come back from the dead and (c) to praise the two key partnerships - Banton and Babar's 90 and Bartlett and Bess' 88 - which have seen the target chased down.
Tom Abell is fairly bubbling over with joy and excitement when I talk to him afterwards, rightly giving as much of the credit for this against the odds victory to his bowlers on the third day as his batsmen on the fourth. I hasten back to the box to send the interviews up the line and make what I hope will be a quick getaway. All goes well until, just as I'm climbing into my BBC car, my producer rings to say that the recordings have got mangled in transit, and would I mind sending them again? Grrr!
In the event, this turns out to be a blessing in disguise, as my delayed departure means I can give a lift to Ben Warren, the Somerset team bus having disobligingly left without him. We chat happily all the way back to Somerset, Ben bringing me up to date with the wealth of talent that there seems to be in the Somerset Academy, of which more on another day.
It has been a terrific win, which closes the gap with Essex to just two points. The Somerset dream lives on!
Warwickshire 419 and 146; Somerset 308 and 258/5. Somerset (21 pts) win by five wickets
It is a fine, breezy, mostly sunny morning in leafy Edgbaston; a morning for batting, to be sure. Somerset need exactly 250 more runs to keep their Championship campaign on track, with all wickets standing. I reckon that the combination of Jeetan Patel and a fourth day pitch makes Warwickshire the favourites, but one of my co-commentators, Phil Britt, who runs the Warwickshire Cricket Museum and knows vastly more about his county's cricket than I do, has Somerset as the likely winners. But, with a minimum of 96 overs to be bowled and the weather set fair, we are going to get a definite result, one way or the other.
Steve Davies and Tom Abell start confidently, It is beginning to look as if Hildreth, for only the second time this season, will not be required to walk out to bat before the end of the 12th over, when Davies goes to drive Hannon-Dalby and succeeds only in nicking a simple catch to Ambrose. So out trudges Hildreth and, again as so often this season, he is soon trudging back again, given LBW to Hannon-Dalby in almost identical fashion to his first innings dismissal. His move up to three in the order has been anything but a success.
Abell is the next to go, beaten by an inswinger from Henry Brookes. So that's 49/3, and Somerset are in trouble. By dint of a lot of application and a good helping of luck, Tom Banton and Babar Azam make it through to lunch, against accurate bowling on a wearing pitch. The cricket hasn't had much in common with their blistering partnerships in the Blast!
It is much the same story for the first 20 minutes or so after lunch, survival the height of both batsmen's ambitions. But then, just as I finish a commentary stint. something changes. Whether it's a conscious decision to take the attack back to the bowlers, or just a couple of loose overs, I'n not sure, but suddenly the runs start to flow. Patel's fifth over goes for 11 runs, including one of Banton's trademark reverse-swept sixes. Given the identity of the bowler it feels almost like a case of lese-majesty! Babar joins in with two handsome boundaries in Brookes' next over, and the shackles have been broken. Banton has reached a hard-working 50 and I am just beginning to permit myself to imagine how victory might feel, when young George Garrett is brought back and in his second over, wins a leg before decision against Babar: 139/4, the game back in the balance.
After his usual uncertain start, George Bartlett is coolness personified. He and Banton look so much alike at the crease from a distance that I'm having to work hard to tell them apart, Banton's characteristic knees-bend as the bowler runs in proving my best guide. Patel brings himself back on, and immediately looks a threat, getting the odd ball to bounce and turn alarmingly. In his 8th over, he gets his reward as the ball loops up from bat to body to Ambrose's right glove as the wicket-keeper dives forward from behind the stumps. Banton is furious, and slouches off, swishing his bat: 170/5, the game far from won.
But the next man in is Dom Bess, and this is just the sort of situation in which this pugnacious cricketer thrives. The Warwickshire bowlers don't help themselves by feeding his favourite cut shots and, with Bartlett going smoothly along at the other end, the runs start to flow once more. When the deficit falls below 50, BBC WM's Mike Perkins effectively concedes defeat and when Bartlett comes down the pitch to drive Patel over the long-on boundary for six, even pessimistic old Gibbo can breathe easily.
As is customary, the 'winning commentator' is on the mic for the winning runs, but not for long, as BBC WM are on the very point of coming over for an up-date. But I'm on for long enough (a) to give the result as 5 wickets (b) to say that Somerset have come back from the dead and (c) to praise the two key partnerships - Banton and Babar's 90 and Bartlett and Bess' 88 - which have seen the target chased down.
Tom Abell is fairly bubbling over with joy and excitement when I talk to him afterwards, rightly giving as much of the credit for this against the odds victory to his bowlers on the third day as his batsmen on the fourth. I hasten back to the box to send the interviews up the line and make what I hope will be a quick getaway. All goes well until, just as I'm climbing into my BBC car, my producer rings to say that the recordings have got mangled in transit, and would I mind sending them again? Grrr!
In the event, this turns out to be a blessing in disguise, as my delayed departure means I can give a lift to Ben Warren, the Somerset team bus having disobligingly left without him. We chat happily all the way back to Somerset, Ben bringing me up to date with the wealth of talent that there seems to be in the Somerset Academy, of which more on another day.
It has been a terrific win, which closes the gap with Essex to just two points. The Somerset dream lives on!
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