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The Sunrisers head coach isn’t in favour of moving the captain down the order

Shashank Kishore08-May-20224:40

What’s going wrong for Sunrisers?

Among all batters to have faced at least 150 deliveries in IPL 2022, Kane Williamson is the only one to have scored his runs at a strike rate of less than 100. He’s also averaging below 20 after 11 innings.On Sunday, Williamson was run out without facing a ball as Sunrisers Hyderabad stuttered up front in their chase of 193 against Royal Challengers Bangalore. They eventually lost by 67 runs to enter do-or-die territory as far as playoffs qualifications is concerned, with three matches remaining of their league campaign.Related

• Interview: Tom Moody on Sunrisers' dream pace attack

• The reasons behind the Sunrisers slump

• Faf du Plessis, Hasaranga crush Sunrisers Hyderabad

How much of a concern is Williamson’s form, and is moving him down the order one potential fix? Tom Moody, the Sunrisers coach, doesn’t think it is, and believes there is still time left in the season for Williamson to make an impact.”We’ve thought about that,” Moody said, when asked if Rahul Tripathi, and not Williamson, should open the innings on current form. “But we felt that Tripathi-[Aiden] Markram-[Nicholas] Pooran at 3-4-5 have been one of our strengths of our batting.”To be fair to Kane, he didn’t even face a ball today, so it’ll be pretty hard to judge his form on today’s outing. We back him, he’s a world-class player, there’s no question of that. He’ll have his moment to stamp his authority on the tournament.”After 11 innings, Kane Williamson averages 19.90 and has a strike rate of 96.13 in IPL 2022•BCCI

Williamson isn’t the only one facing questions over form. Umran Malik has been in the spotlight all season for his bristling pace, and has taken wickets in bursts, but he has been hugely expensive in Sunrisers’ last three games, conceding a combined 125 runs in 10 wicketless overs.Moody called for more patience with Malik as he acclimatises to the sheer volume of top-flight cricket he’s played lately. Between the previous IPL season and this one, he featured in just one first-class game, three List-A matches and seven T20s.”It’s a real learning experience for him,” Moody said. “You have to look at the volume of cricket he has played, which is very minimal, really. This run of games in a row for him is something he’s not used to. He’s not used to playing this regular cricket but the high intensity of cricket the IPL is. He’s on a very steep learning curve. Over the last couple of outings, there’s no question that he hasn’t quite got it right. We’re doing our best to support him and guide him to learn from these experiences.”Reflecting on Sunday’s loss, which puts Sunrisers in a tight position as far as the race for playoffs spots goes, Moody felt they conceded 20-25 more runs than they should have. Two dropped catches – one early in the innings and another one at the end – didn’t help either.Umran Malik has conceded 125 runs in his last 10 overs in the IPL while failing to pick up a wicket•BCCI

Faf du Plessis, who was dropped on 26 by Tripathi in the eighth over, carried his bat through to make 73 not out. Then, Dinesh Karthik was let off in the final over by Tripathi once again, when he was on 8. Apart from the drop being palmed over deep midwicket, the next three balls disappeared for two sixes and a four as the young Afghan debutant Fazalhaq Farooqi conceded 25 off the final over.”I think it’s just the small margins that we didn’t capitalise on,” Moody said. “We shouldn’t have been chasing the total we ended up chasing. We dropped two key catches which sort of out us under pressure. We failed to execute our plans to a couple of players that we’d discussed.”When you’re missing out on those small margins, it makes it difficult for your batting group to chase 20-25 runs more than it should have been. And then you have a situation where you have a run-out in the very first over, which was an interesting outcome for us [Williamson was given out even though replays suggested that some part of the bat may have been over the line], and then losing a wicker straight after that, you’re immediately on the back foot. It did make the run chase a lot bigger than it should have been.”Moody disagreed with the suggestion that the batting had been a letdown. He pointed out that the bowlers – Sunrisers’ stronger suit – had conceded tall totals that had shifted the pressure onto the batters. Sunrisers have conceded scores of 199, 202, 207 and 192 in their last four games.”Most of the season we’ve batted pretty well,” Moody said. “We’ve missed a couple of games where it’s been more about our execution with the ball than the bat and we’ve been asking our batters to chase a bit like today – 20-25 more runs than we should have done.”

Australia have been bowled out for 191, 195 and 200 in three of their four innings so far this series

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Dec-2020Australia captain Tim Paine lamented his side’s ongoing batting woes after they sank to an eight-wicket defeat at the MCG against India, which put the series on an even footing at 1-1 with two Tests to go.The home side scraped to 200 – for the first time in the series – in their second innings, but could go no further than that, setting India a target of just 70, which was achieved with ease. That followed first-innings totals of 191 and 195 in the two matches, with Melbourne being the first time since 1988 that Australia have not had an individual half-century in a home Test.Tim Paine congratulates Ajinkya Rahane after India’s win•Getty Images

“We are very disappointed, we played pretty poor cricket, pretty sloppy cricket, for the majority of the match,” Paine told the host broadcaster after the match. “That’s to take nothing away from India; they put us under pressure and forced us into making a number of mistakes, especially with the bat, and in the field, and when you do that against good side it makes it very hard to win.”You’ve got to give the Indian attack credit, they’ve bowled beautifully to us, there’s no doubt about that. We haven’t adapted as well as we would have liked. As a batting group, there’s no doubt we are very disappointed with what we’ve put up in the first two Test matches, but there’s still two to go so we’ll work hard and try to rectify it for the next Test.”Related

• Struggles at the top: Australia's options for the third Test

• Sydney Cricket Ground retains third Test in spite of Covid doubts

• Unwanted history brings David Warner, Will Pucovski into the frame for Australia

• Tim Paine queries DRS verdict with umpires

• The MCG: India's most successful venue away from home

Australia would be desperate for the return of David Warner, who has spent time netting at the MCG during this match while he awaits his return to the bio-secure Test bubble, as he continues his recovery from the groin strain suffered in the ODI series. During the Test, Australia coach Justin Langer said Warner was not certain for the third match but the continued batting problems of the incumbents may force the selectors’ hands.One glimmer for Australia was the performance of Cameron Green in the second innings, as he made a composed 45 in nearly three hours at the crease.”Think he’s started his career really well,” Paine said. “We knew the talent he’s got, we can see the temperament he’s got, and with more and more Test cricket he’s going to blossom into a pretty outstanding player, which is exciting for us as a team and the Australian public to watch.”

He had been given a no-objection certificate to play the entire tournament but it has now been revoked by the PCB with the aim of bringing the 19-year old back to play the Quaid-e-Azam trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Sep-2019Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Hasnain has been asked to return home from the CPL immediately. He had originally gone to the West Indies with a no-objection certificate that said he could play the entire tournament for Trinbago Knight Riders but it has now been revoked by the PCB with the aim of bringing the 19-year old back to play the Quaid-e-Azam trophy.Hasnain shot to prominence earlier this year, when he was picked up by the Quetta Gladiators even though at the time he had played only two first-class games. The reason for that became immediately apparent as the teenager started hitting speeds of 150 kph consistently and ended up with 12 wickets in 28 overs with an economy rate of 7.5. That led to a maiden call-up to the Pakistan one-day team in March and a World Cup spot in July (even though he didn’t get to play any games).Considering that, it was unsurprising that TKR came calling but the fact that one of Pakistan’s most promising bowlers was missing the first round of the Quaid-e-Azam trophy to play T20 cricket abroad became a talking point, especially in light of other senior Pakistan bowlers doing much the same. Mohammad Amir retired from Test cricket earlier this year and Wahab Riaz has also chosen to take an indefinite break from first-class cricket. These events – and perhaps a Test tour of Australia in November – prompted the PCB to call Hasnain back home so he can hone his long-form skills.

The New South Wales captain wants the banned duo to play a role in helping his team atone for several lost years

Daniel Brettig26-Jun-2018Improved talent development was at the forefront of Peter Nevill’s mind as he was formally unveiled as the New South Wales captain, and he wants the banned duo of Steven Smith and David Warner to play a role in helping Australia’s largest cricket state atone for several lost years now in evidence at international level.On the current limited-overs tour of England, the only Blues player in the squad is Nathan Lyon. While Smith, Warner, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins were all unavailable through suspension or injury, the trend was even starker for Australia A squads named to tour India – Kurtis Patterson the only NSW contracted cricketer included.This breakdown in the talent conveyor belt for the nation’s most populous state played a part in costing Trent Johnston his job as coach. His replacement Phil Jaques has been working with Nevill and the rest of the senior players to drive home their need to develop the younger members of a contract list that has been shorn of the likes of Ed Cowan and Doug Bollinger by retirement and the unfulfilled talent of Nic Maddinson relocating to Victoria.”NSW has been accustomed to success over the years and we’re very determined to bring that back,” Nevill said in Sydney. “A big focus for us moving forward is we’ve got some good senior players around the place and we’re making sure we get knowledge transferred and bring on our younger players and get them up-skilled as quick as we can to be ready to perform well when they get their chance at first-class cricket.”[We want Smith and Warner to help] as much as they’re available to do. Having that kind of knowledge around the place as well is only going to help up-skill some of these young guys and also some of our more experienced guys, you can always learn by talking about the game with people who know the game inside out, and those two definitely fit in that category.”We’ve been lucky the big three quicks have been around doing their rehab stuff, and were involved in our planning day as well. So Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins – having that calibre of people around and being able to share what they’ve experienced over their career so far, its invaluable knowledge that people learn a lot from hearing.”Rather than initiating formal involvement for Smith and Warner, Nevill wanted to encourage the pair to spend time with players on one-on-one basis over coffee. “It doesn’t have to be on a formal basis,” he said. “If they’re around and they want to have a coffee with people. Some of the best learning experiences for me are quite informal experiences, just sitting around and having a coffee or something like that.”They’re going to have a lot of things in their schedules, they’re busy people, but the more we can have them around, the better. I would certainly not be against them playing any games for us, I’d love to have them around all the time and hopefully we can have them at some point this season to play for us. If that’s the Shield final then we’ll have to make sure we make that.”As for a series of photos taken of Smith in repose in New York this week and then published with inflammatory headlines in the News Corp tabloids on Tuesday, Nevill said he was eager to ensure his predecessor was in a healthy mental space. “That’s obviously disappointing,” he said. “First and foremost Steve’s a lovely human being, he’s a friend of mine and I care about him a lot. You wouldn’t want to see that happening to anybody really. But that’s the thing, what’s been great is seeing his friends and his team-mates rally around him and really want to make sure he’s doing ok personally.”Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins shared their gleanings from Australia’s pre-tour camp in Brisbane with the NSW squad, including the key principles and benchmarks of the national team coach Justin Langer. In a departure from the previous regime, these are understood to have focused almost exclusively on standards of behaviour and said very little about performance, with the logic being that good people in a good environment will perform at their best.Nevill was tellingly dropped from the Australian Test team in late 2016, at a time when Matthew Wade’s more openly hostile approach to opponents was preferred amid euphemistic talk about “energy” and “presence”. A little less than two years later, Cricket Australia is in the midst of dual cultural reviews, and while Nevill said he wanted individuals to find their own way to be at their best, there is little doubt he prefers a different tack, and will follow it as he strives to return to the international arena.”People will go about performing at their optimal level in different ways,” Nevill said. “Some people thrive off getting in a bit of a verbal contest, some people don’t, but a lot of the reasons that people do that is to get themselves into that optimal space and I’m comfortable with people doing whatever they need to do to be in their optimal space. We want to be winning games of cricket, that’s the focus for me, and whichever way you go about doing that consistently I think is a good way to go about doing it.”I’d love to play Test cricket again, so a good goal for me is to get on the Ashes tour at the end of this season, they’ll take two keepers to England, so if I can put the numbers on the board that I did before the last Ashes tour to England [in 2015] then hopefully I can get on that tour.”

Having lost their last two matches in the IPL, both teams are in need of a fresh start

The Preview by Sreshth Shah16-Apr-2017

Match facts

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kings XI Punjab
Hyderabad, April 17, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)3:44

Hogg: Morgan should be given another opportunity

Form guide

• Sunrisers Hyderabad (fourth): lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by 17 runs, lost to Mumbai Indians by 4 wickets, beat Gujarat Lions by 9 wickets

• Kings XI Punjab (fifth): lost to Delhi Daredevils by 51 runs, lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by 8 wickets, beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 8 wickets

Head to head

Overall: Sunrisers Hyderabad go into the tie leading 6-2 and are chasing their fifth consecutive win against Kings XI Punjab. At home, Sunrisers lead the head-to-head 3-1.Last season: Sunrisers won both games, including a final-over finish in Chandigarh, where Kings XI lost despite a supreme 96 from Hashim Amla.

In the news

Kings XI captain Glenn Maxwell made it clear after their 51-run loss to Delhi Daredevils that “everything was a weakness” and that it was getting to the point where he would have to pick “uncapped players”, perhaps indicating the seniors weren’t performing up to potential. David Miller and Eoin Morgan might not feel too comfortable with their places in the XI too if Martin Guptill and Shaun Marsh have recovered from injuries.Mustafizur Rahman was left out of the Sunrisers XI last match, but it would be surprising to not see him return considering his success in Hyderabad – seven wickets at 25.85 and an economy rate of 6.96 in the IPL. Last year, he also picked up 2 for 9 in four overs against Kings XI. It could all mean Ben Cutting, who has been good but not extraordinary, getting the axe.

The likely XIs

Sunrisers Hyderabad 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 David Warner (capt), 3 Moises Henriques, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Ben Cutting/Mustafizur Rahman, 8 Bipul Sharma, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Rashid Khan, 11 Ashish NehraKings XI Punjab 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 4 Eoin Morgan, 5 Glenn Maxwell (capt), 6 David Miller, 7 Axar Patel, 8 KC Cariappa, 9 Mohit Sharma, 10 Varun Aaron, 11 Sandeep Sharma

Strategy punt

• Sunrisers’ spin threat Rashid Khan, who usually bowls early in the innings, could be saved to bowl to Maxwell and Miller later on since they have never faced him before.
• Sandeep Sharma, who has dismissed Warner twice in the Powerplays before, may get an extended spell in the first six overs.

Stats that matter

• Sunrisers have a 10-1 record while chasing at home. Overall, chasing teams have lost only two of the last ten games played there.
• David Warner’s form against Kings XI is superlative. He has scored half-centuries – 52, 59, 81, 58 – in each of his last four matches.
• In IPL 2017, spin has dominated the first innings of matches in Hyderabad. Pacers conceded 266 runs off 162 balls (economy of 9.85) in the first innings while spinner conceded only 76 runs off 78 balls (5.84).
• Hashim Amla’s fondness for Ashish Nehra’s bowling is displayed by his exemplary numbers against the fast bowler: in ODIs, he has 77 runs in 48 balls and in IPL, he has scored 25 runs off 11 deliveries.
• Rashid Khan has bowled inside the Powerplay in every IPL game this season. He has also taken a wicket off his first over every time.
• Sunrisers wicketkeeper Naman Ojha has been in an extended rut in the IPL. He averaged 13.60 and 13.70 in the last two seasons with a highest score of only 37.

Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait has signed with Glamorgan for the second half of the NatWest T20 Blast tournament.

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Mar-2016Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait has signed with Glamorgan for the second half of the NatWest T20 Blast tournament.It means a return to the county where he spent time in 2010 playing T20 cricket. Tait was recalled to the Australia T20 side earlier this year against India but did not make the cut for the World T20.Glamorgan will be pleased to have him on their side this season after he claimed six wickets in two appearances against them in 2015 playing for Essex.The club are also hopeful of securing another overseas name for the first part of the NatWest Blast.Hugh Morris, the chief executive, said: “We believe we have a very competitive team and as one of the fastest bowlers in the world Shaun will add a cutting edge to our attack”We are also in negotiations with another overseas player for the first half of the NatWest T20 Blast and hope to make an announcement in the coming weeks.”

Darren Lehmann, the Australian coach, admits that he and his team have a lot to learn after their 3-0 Ashes defeat to England

Daniel Brettig26-Aug-2013Australia must improve and so too, by his own admission, does their coach Darren Lehmann. In the aftermath of a 3-0 series defeat that ended with an ICC fine for too readily taking the bait thrown by England fast bowler Stuart Broad, Lehmann said he had learned much from his first international assignment, including the fact that even a “jovial” radio interview back home can ping around the world if he does not choose his words more wisely.Lehmann arrived in the job only two weeks before the start of the Ashes bout, and while he has been credited with lifting Australia’s team spirit and preaching an aggressive, flair-filled brand of the game, he has been unable to bring about the lift of standards required for the team to win a Test match. They have now gone nine Tests without singing the team song, and as Lehmann acknowledged his error in responding to Broad, he also spoke of unearthing a “winning attitude”.”It was a good learning curve for a new coach, wasn’t it?” Lehmann said. “You know, a jovial setting but you’ve got to learn from that. I’ve got to learn and improve from that. The players aren’t on their own in trying to improve. Coaches have got to improve so that’s something I’ve got to get better at. I’ve had a chat with him (Broad) already. We just move on.”I’m still loving it, it’s a great job. I’d like to win a Test match though, but it’s a fantastic job. Now I’ve seen all the players here, and the one-day and Twenty20 players are obviously [arriving] Thursday, so you get to deal with them and look at how we’re going in that format of the game as well. By the end of the tour I’ll have a really good mindset on all the players, which will be quite comforting for me as coach.”Lehmann did not retreat for one moment from the version of cricket romanticism he and captain Michael Clarke have shown an evangelical zeal for, even though England’s shrewdness and pragmatism has stonewalled them repeatedly across the series. He took pride in having setup a thrilling final day of the Oval Test, though the generosity of Clarke’s declaration meant the tourists were ultimately left cajoling the umpires into using their light meter and ending play – the object of a crowd’s well-oiled booing at the end of the match.”Look, I can’t control the crowd. They’ve been pretty good all series. We’ve kept them quiet most of the time, even though we are 3-0 down, so it shows how close it probably is,” Lehmann said. “In regards to that you can’t do anything about that. What I do know is that game was set up totally by the Australian cricket team and I think the crowd probably enjoyed that more than the other days so far. That’s the brand of cricket we want to play. We want to push the boundaries.”We were quite happy to lose a game to set up the game. English fans have been great all summer, but to come out and see that on the last day, I think it was outstanding from Michael and the set-up what we tried to do. We want to keep challenging our players in those situations to get better, learn from the mistakes we make. We’re going to make mistakes, we understand that. But we’ve got to improve from there. If we do that, then we can challenge.”Having had so little preparatory time ahead of the series and also no say in the touring party that was chosen, Lehmann said that while he had been impressed overall by the work ethic of the players, changes could be expected before the return matches in Australia. It may be that Lehmann asks for his own choices of assistant coaches, as has become fashionable in 21st century sport.”It’s great learning about the players how they are. I’m very impressed with their work ethic on and off the ground, how they go about it,” Lehmann said. “I think there’s a lot of improvement in our setup, which is exciting for me. Would I change too much? Really hard when you’ve just come into the setup and the touring side’s been picked. When we’re back home you’ll probably see different things happen, but in terms of hearing a lot of things from outside and not being in that circle for many years, to come in and see how they’re trying to improve all the time was impressive for me. Now it’s just a matter of improving that skill level for us to compete better than we have.”

Ross Taylor, New Zealand captain, has said that his team’s focus wouldn’t shift beyond the matches in the group stage in the World Twenty20

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Sep-2012New Zealand will be wary of its group-stage opponents in the World Twenty20 and won’t look “too far ahead” early in the tournament, its captain Ross Taylor has said. New Zealand are in Group D along with Bangladesh and Pakistan.New Zealand pulled off a thrilling one-run T20 win against India in Chennai on Tuesday, which capped their tough tours of West Indies and India over the past two months. But Taylor said the threat of the Bangladesh and Pakistan spinners in Sri Lankan conditions would stop his team from being overconfident.”We’ve got a tough pool in Pakistan and Bangladesh and we don’t want to look too far ahead of those two matches,” he said.”Twenty20 is a game where you now have to play attacking but they do have world-class spinners in their sides and we need to acknowledge that and allow our players to combat it,” Taylor said.New Zealand play Australia and South Africa in two warm-up games before their first match of the tournament on September 21.”Australia played very well in their last game, I’m sure they’ll take a lot of confidence from that. The way [David] Warner and Watto [Shane Watson] batted set a very good platform for the side. Any New Zealand-Australia game is obviously competitive and we’ll be looking forward to trying a few things and obviously want us to win the game as well.”On Tuesday, New Zealand, after being in a position to lose for a major part of India’s chase, stuck together a few economical overs at the death through James Franklin and Jacob Oram to take them to victory. Taylor, however, said the win shouldn’t affect their focus on the upcoming tournament.”I think it gives you a little bit of confidence but you don’t want to get too carried away. It’s just one win.”New Zealand’s coach Mike Hesson, hinted that the side would start experimenting once they were “confident about our own game”.”It’s sort of adjusting to the changing humidity, which will take a couple of days so a couple of good trainings and get ready for the warm-up game. Just making sure we give everyone some decent opportunities. Obviously, the key is once we get to the Bangladesh game, once we feel confident about our own game, we’ll certainly give a number of people different opportunities,” Hesson said.He was especially pleased with the side’s resilience to respond positively to the Hyderabad Test, Hesson’s first match as a coach, to run India close in the second Test in Bangalore and finally notch up a win in Chennai.”It was certainly a challenging start: playing in Hyderabad was obviously difficult in terms of quick turnaround from the trip to the West Indies. But I thought the progress the guys showed in Bangalore in the second Test certainly showed improvements with the bat especially, in terms of intent and in terms of defensive spells against the spin bowling, I thought we made good improvements there.”We were frustrated to have the Twenty20 washed out [in Visakhapatnam] but the character we showed in the second T20 against a good side in Chennai gives the guys a lot of confidence heading into the tournament.”The game involved a collision between Kyle Mills and Brendon McCullum as they went to take catch off Yuvraj Singh. Mills, who left the field immediately, will have an x-ray on his left cheek, which Hesson mentioned as a precautionary measure.”He’s going to go for an x-ray today, just of his cheek and just make sure there’s no break there. We’re pretty confident there’s not, but it’s always nice to check that out. And he’s also got a fairly badly bruised hip so we just have to assess where he’s at.”A team decision may be taken on the role of McCullum, who is suffering stiffness in his knee and right arm.

Paul Valthaty, the Mumbai batsman whose form with the bat during this year’s IPL put him in the spotlight, has said he is looking forward to playing for Himachal Pradesh in the upcoming Indian domestic season

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Aug-2011Paul Valthaty, the Mumbai batsman whose form with the bat for Kings XI Punjab during this year’s IPL put him in the spotlight, has said he is looking forward to playing for Himachal Pradesh in the upcoming Indian domestic season. His move to Himachal Pradesh is subject to the Mumbai Cricket Association providing him with a No-Objection Certificate, for which he has applied.If the move goes through, Valthaty will be playing in the Ranji Trophy Plate League since Himachal were relegated from the Super League after finishing bottom of their group last season.”Personally leaving Mumbai will be tough; after all my entire life has been based here, including my cricket. But when I got an offer from Himachal, I decided to move on,” Valthaty told . “It will be a good opportunity for me to showcase my talent and I’m looking forward to the upcoming season. My IPL performance has certainly boosted my confidence and I want to continue the good work.”Valthaty’s decision comes soon after he was named vice-captain of Mumbai’s 15-man squad for the Buchi Babu All-India Invitational that will be held later this month. Valthaty is yet to play for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy and has represented the team in only one List A game, against Baroda in 2006. Following his headline-grabbing century against Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, Valthaty was engaged in a tussle with Sachin Tendulkar for the top spot on the run-scorers’ charts, before finishing the league at No. 6 with 463 runs from 14 games.Vishal Marwaha, the joint-secretary of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, said the organisation was waiting on the NOC. “He [Valthaty] is yet to submit his NOC, but we are hopeful to get it at the earliest. The way he performed during the IPL has certainly shown his talent and we are confident that he will deliver for us.”

Nottinghamshire made a positive start to their match against Warwickshire as they looked to put t20 disappointment behind them

Jon Culley at Trent Bridge16-Aug-2010
ScorecardAli Brown helped push Nottinghamshire forward at a good pace on the opening day•Getty Images

Nottinghamshire were still smarting from the perceived injustice of their defeat against Somerset – stoutly supported by Duckworth and Lewis – that denied them a place in the Friends Provident t20 final at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. The bad news, for Somerset and Yorkshire, is that they intend to pursue their number one goal, namely winning the County Championship, with renewed vigour.Two points clear and with three home matches among the five they have left, they are well placed to fulfil that ambition and will back themselves to use home advantage to the full. Nottinghamshire prepared good cricket wickets for their first four Trent Bridge fixtures in April and May and won three of them. They will look for a pay-off from taking the same approach now.With that in mind they chose to bat first when Chris Read won the toss here, in spite of what looked like a good track to bowl on. It soon became clear that they would force the pace, risk losing wickets and take every scoring opportunity that came their way. In the circumstances, 328 all out from 87.5 overs looked like a decent return.There was always something in the pitch for the bowlers but, with proven batting at least down to No. 8, Nottinghamshire knew they could rattle along at four an over for much of the innings and while a Warwickshire attack lacking the injured Neil Carter performed for the most part acceptably Nottinghamshire numbered few clear failures.Ali Brown, the veteran destroyer who at 40 continues to defy the years, emerged in the event as the home side’s steadying influence, holding things together somewhat with 76 off 138 balls, although he did not waste many opportunities. Coming in at 146 for 4, he supervised the addition of a further 176 runs before he flicked a ball from Boyd Rankin to Varun Chopra on the leg side boundary, sharing a notable partnership of 83 with Chris Read for the sixth wicket and a valuable 30 with a determined Ryan Sidebottom for the ninth.Earlier, Mark Wagh had continued the theme of a series of enjoyable reunions with his former county by stroking 54 off 109 balls, with eight fours. The stylish right-hander, who will be missed when he retires from cricket to become a commercial lawyer next year, has had five first-class innings against Warwickshire since his move to Trent Bridge in 2007, scoring 378 runs, including two centuries.Nottinghamshire’s batting would be stronger still if they could find the right combination at the top, although perhaps, given the nature of the pitches, it is hardly surprising that none of the partnerships tried has lasted long.Alex Hales and Matt Wood are the fifth pairing used this season, Hales having previously opened with Bilal Shafayat, Samit Patel and Neil Edwards, who has also been teamed with Shafayat. No partnership has managed more than 43 and that record was not improved here as Hales, looking to force off the back foot, nicked a catch to Tim Ambrose for 9.Wood was also caught behind, following a ball from the impressive Chris Woakes to perish for 15, but by then Wagh was beginning to find some rhythm and he and Patel added 60 for the third wicket in 82 balls.Patel, right on message from the outset and looking to score at every opportunity, picked up his first 28 runs in boundaries. In the conditions, batting was not straightforward, however, and when Warwickshire introduced Darren Maddy’s skiddy medium pace as the fifth bowler used there was an immediate divided as Patel edged to second slip. David Hussey’s innings followed a similar pattern, the Australian briskly picking up half a dozen fours before chopping on to Woakes.Read, far and away Nottinghamshire’s most reliable batsman, maintained the momentum with 45 off 52 balls, including two sixes – one streaky, off a top-edged hook, the other less so – off Boyd Rankin, before Maddy bowled him with a ball that probably bounced less than he anticipated.Warwickshire will feel they should have done better. They put down four catches, Wood escaping on 6 when he edged Woakes to Rikki Clarke at second slip and Hussey on nought with Clarke again the perpetrator and Maddy the unlucky bowler.Read had a let-off on 11 when Maddy, who seemed to misread the ball’s trajectory, made a gallant but unsuccessful one-handed attempt at mid-on off Imran Tahir. Maddy also put down a much simpler chance at slip off Clarke when Andre Adams was on 1, although the Nottinghamshire No. 9 added only five more runs.Warwickshire negotiated six overs without loss at the close with one scare, Ian Westwood getting a leading edge to Sidebottom’s fifth ball and watching with relief as Paul Franks, diving forward at short mid-on, failed to scoop the ball off the deck.