By Medium Harvey
May 12 2013

Medium Harvey reports on him losing his way to witness a tense battle for bonus points in the gloom

Warwickshire v Middlesex Day 4 Edgbaston 2013

I wasn't initially planning to attend today, but my wife told me that she had invited over some friends, and that that I would have a houseful of toddlers to contend with that (in her words) I “probably won't be able to handle.” This revelation led me to enquire whether a match reporter would be needed for today. The answer was in the affirmative, so instead of planting out climbing French beans as originally planned, I found myself heading north on the train once again.

Leaving Birmingham New Street Station I was overcome by a desire to find a more pleasant walking route to the ground than the rather grim one following a busy dual carriageway. Taking the next road to the East, running parallel to it (or so I thought) ought to take me right to the ground, or so my instinct told me. Needless to say my instinct was completely wrong and I ended up totally lost for the second time in as many days. I did eventually find my way to the ground, via a suburb called Balsall Heath, arriving just in time for the scheduled start. However the rain which had started 10 minutes earlier after a hitherto dry morning meant play would not start for another 45 minutes in any case.

Resuming on 267/5 with 12 still needed to avoid the follow-on, disappointingly Clarke and Milnes  passed the follow-on total with no apparent dfficulty, with Clarke spanking Finny over square leg into the Eric Hollies Stand for 6, and 4 runs from Milnes in the next over ensuring all that was left to play for was bonus points. Shortly afterwards more rain came, bringing an early lunch with only 19 deliveries possible in the opening session.

When the teams eventually came back on, Warwicks were 284/5 from 95.5 overs, with realistically  two batting points to play for. Clarke and Milnes progressed in the same manner as they had before lunch, the 300 posted with a Clarke square cut to the boundary off another loose Finny delivery for their first bonus point of the day. This left 10 overs and 5 balls for them to score another 50. They were looking so comfortable that there seemed little prospect of them failing to do it. Only with the replacement of Finny by Murts did questions start to be asked of the batsmen, and we still had to wait for the 107^th over for the breakthrough that gave us our next bowling point as Milnes (24) hooked a short one from Murts straight to Colly at deep backward square. 332/6.

Murts was to add further to his tally in the next over, clean bowling Patel (5). 338/7 with 16 balls of the 110 overs remaining. Incredibly Allin (0) departed first ball, caught at slip by AC to give Murts his 5-fer, and there was suddenly a real chance that not only could Middlesex claim maximum bowling points, but they could deny Warwicks their batting point, since the injured Evans who broke his hand yesterday was unlikely to bat. 338/8.

Rikki Clarke held firm though. Despite a jittery misunderstanding resulting in a bungled run-out attempt, and the no.11 Rankin left to face the 2^nd ball of the 110^th over with 4 runs still needed, Rankin edged Murts through the slips for a boundary to give Warwickshire their batting point. The last four balls of the over failed to yield our final bowling point, and that was it as far as meaningful play went. An over later they went off for rain again with the score on 355/8.

They did briefly re-emerge, after what was another fairly lengthy stoppage during which time Rikki Clarke posted a well-deserved half century against bowling mainly designed to ensure compliance with the over rate. When they came off again for rain on 374/8 at about 3.30 I had had enough. Walking back to New St. Station the sun was out, but I discovered looking at the score on my phone that they never did go back on.

Very badly weather-affected matches like this one are never satisfactory, but in this instance the much-criticised bonus point system did offer us at least a modest amount of entertainment for the eye-watering £20 admission fee. It also provided us with a definite moral victory against the County champions away from home. We got 10 points from this draw, Warwickshire 8.

It could perhaps have been even better, but it's not for me to criticise too much. After all, there does seem to be something in the Birmingham air that can cause a man to completely lose his sense of direction!