Recent Match Report – Kent vs Middlesex 2023

Warwickshire 143 for 8 (Mousley 55*, Roach 3-31) vs Surrey

Late-career Roach (more Use Your Loaf these days than Meatloaf – think “Bat Out of Hell”) is a handful on moody days such as this one, his natural inswing given more venom by movement off the pitch.

Three wickets for Roach, two for Worrall, one for Tom Lawes and, vitally, two-in-two for Jordan Clark just before bad light prematurely ended a rain-affected first day made up a day of Surrey superiority. Warwickshire, 143 for 8 in 51 overs, need equally grim Friday weather in the hope that Chris Woakes and co can respond in kind. “The toughest conditions we have faced this deason,” their captain, Will Rhodes said.

Surrey dispensed with Hampshire a fortnight ago and if they do the same to Warwickshire at Edgbaston, two of their likeliest challengers would be put in their place by the end of the month. There is an awful lot of poetry written about how divine April is, but that’s poetry for you – you just can’t trust it. As Lee Anderson might say one day.

Jonathan Trott felt exactly the same as he, too, stood down, the only difference being that Trott stayed on as part of the Warwickshire coaching staff and kept breaking Mousley’s fingers in fielding routines: three breaks in two seasons were an unfortunate introduction to the hazards of a cricketer’s lot.

If Mousley wondered whether his fingers were vulnerable, he can find relief in the fact that he has now withstood a clank on the helmet with no ill effects. He was struck when 20 as he failed to crouch under a short ball from Lawes, who can be more waspish than he first appears. After passing concussion protocols, he played subsequent bouncers with equanimity, including the predictable, leery one in the following over from Clark.

He also gave a chance on 16 – a fast catch to third slip off Lawes, put down by Ryan Patel. His square driving was particularly well-honed; his riskiest shot perhaps when he stole a yard down the pitch to whip Roach through midwicket soon after lunch even though the ball left him off the pitch.

“He has a very different technique to what I am accustomed to and is a very busy cricketer who looks good,” Roach said. “Well played to him.”

There was a time early in his career when Roach looked out-of-sorts against left-handers, but now he swings the ball away from them without a care in the world. As Surrey’s bowling day began, it took him eight balls to remove Rob Yates for nought, leaving him off the pitch to force a catch at fourth slip.

There was nothing special in Rhodes’ edge to slip off Worrall, just a ball angled across. Roach then struck again three balls later. Alex Davies had batted with great deliberation, but then his true self announced itself and he was late on a pull and sliced it high to the wicketkeeper. Ollie Pope at slip, Ben Foakes behind the stumps: two England players fed and watered early.

That Warwickshire were resolved to prove their worth was also apparent in Hain’s stubborn 10 from 42 balls, but he played around a full inswinger from Lawes. Ed Barnard and Mark Burgess went their way soon after lunch as Roach and Worrall returned for seconds – Barnard surrendering to Worrall’s insistent length and edging to second slip, and Burgess athletically picked up in his follow-through by Roach. There are not many fast bowlers at 34, nearly a decade after a serious car accident, who could pluck the ball, one-handed, from the turf while executing a forward roll.

Then, as the groundstaff hovered by the covers, two successive leg-befores for Clark – Chris Woakes and Hasan Ali – to confirm it was Surrey’s day.

The previous evening, Warwickshire’s coach, Mark Robinson, had proclaimed: “The overriding emotion for me and the players is excitement; we want to take on the best and test ourselves.” A day later, the overriding emotion was concern. One part of the country wants this lousy April weather to continue a little longer.