Surrey 281 (Smith 88) and 16 for 1 (Lawes 14*) beat Warwickshire 150 (Mousley 55, Worrall 4-38) and and 141 (Barnard 49, Roach 5-34, Worrall 3-55) by nine wickets

If ever a day's cricket warranted a trigger warning for the weather-ravaged occupants of the Hollies Stand, this was it. Expectations that they could take the game deep into the final day were banished as Surrey took clinical advantage of ideal bowling conditions to brush their second innings aside in 40 overs, the match over with virtually a session to spare.

Five wickets for Kemar Roach brought him 8 for 67 in the match and took him past 500 first-class wickets; three for Dan Worrall took his tally to 7 for 93. Much is made of how much they enjoy bowling together and with these sorts of returns, it could hardly be a more satisfying alliance.

Only Ed Barnard's 49 saved Warwickshire from an innings defeat and even he bashed the ground in frustration when he was ninth out, nicking a rising ball from Worrall to the wicketkeeper. It all ended with a chucklesome tail-enders' run out between Chris Rushworth and Oliver Hannon-Dalby with Hannon-Dalby's series of indecisive, tiny steps down the pitch, after he had pushed the ball into the leg side, turning Rushworth's brain to mush.

Previous dispatches from Edgbaston might have intimated that Surrey and Warwickshire were the two most bloody-minded counties in Division One, both capable of soaking up considerable punishment yet still coming back for more. Well, they probably are. That is a measure of Surrey's achievement in breaking the game in such startling fashion.

Alec Stewart, their director of cricket, and skipper Rory Burns have re-established the sort of Surrey dominance that was felt in the 1950s and again at the turn of the century. On and off the field, they are setting the standards. The Championship cannot be settled in April, especially by a side that has only won two matches in three, but it is already abundantly clear that they will take some stopping.

Sixty-one runs in arrears with two Surrey wickets to get: for Warwickshire, the position at the start of play was ominous, especially in such a low-scoring match, but not quite irretrievable.

In the Hollies, they settled in for the long haul, but things became ominous from the moment Worrall opened his shoulders and twice smote Hannon-Dalby heartily through mid-on. A pulled six against Chris Rushworth followed. A new ball that was only three deliveries old at start of play was becoming a little battered. Surrey's sense of when to step up the tempo has been an impressive feature of their second win in three.

Worrall made 35 from 24 balls before he perished at deep mid-on and by the time Jamie Smith was last out for 88 at deep midwicket, attempting an extravagant leg-side pick-up off one knee, 70 had been pummelled in 11 overs and Warwickshire's deficit was 131.

Surrey's new-ball assault on either side of lunch was then of the highest order. By the time Roach and Worrall had drunk their fill, Warwickshire were 50 for 6 from 16 overs. A surface that had settled, but only slightly, when Warwickshire were bowling was still full of life, enlivened in part by a murky morning.

Roach has had a wonderful game, a quality overseas player who seems to be utterly engaged with his task. He swung and seamed the ball throughout and nobody had more cause to rue that than Rob Yates, who was twice picked off in Roach's second over. If Yates fell to a good delivery on the opening day, he received an unplayable one on this occasion, Roach attacking the left-hander from around the wicket and leaving him massively off the seam.

Worrall's addition of Alex Davies in the following over was also down to movement off the pitch, Cameron Steel holding on at third slip. Roach had soon befuddled Warwickshire's batters so much that Sam Hain departed pushing at a wide one, and the left-handed Rhodes was lbw to one that failed to swing.

Dan Mousley had resisted gamely in the first innings, but some discussion appeared to have taken place about a technique that Roach had dubbed "very different." Worrall swung one very wide across him and he couldn't resist, Dom Sibley holding the fourth slip catch in five.

A run out would have been an ignominious addition, and Barnard narrowly avoided it, diving back into the crease to beat Worrall's throw from mid on after Michaal Burgess had changed his mind over a single. Burgess soon fell, square cutting at Roach, who by then was threatening wickets no matter what he bowled.

Surrey's change bowlers had to settle for one wicket between them - Jordan Clark's inswinger bowling Chris Woakes through the gate. But the clouds were darkening, the floodlights flickering into life and Burns, impatient to get on with it, even fashioned a change of ball. It was enough for the new-ball pair to return to enhance their figures.

The 11 needed were meant to be secured by a collector's-item opening pairing of Worrall and Tom Lawes, neither of whom has opened before, and one of whom hasn't even dreamed of it, only for it to be all too much for Worrall who pulled one into the legside and fell for nought.

Kemar Roach Dan Worrall team up as Warwickshire fold inside three days

2023-04-29 16:17:42