Warwickshire bowled out for 60 on the first day
Middlesex took ruthless advantage of winning a valuable toss by bowling Warwickshire out for 60 on the opening day of their LV=Insurance County Championship match at Edgbaston.
Warwickshire were skittled for their lowest championship total since 1982 (43 v Sussex at Edgbaston) as Ethan Bamber took five for 20 and skipper Toby Roland-Jones three for 27.
The seamers skilfully exploited helpful conditions but were abetted by some flawed defensive shots. Middlesex then replied with 199 (Ryan Higgins 53, 72 balls, Ed Barnard and Mir Hamza both three for 49) for a first innings lead of 139 – and there was still time on a chaotic day for the home side to lose two wickets second time round, reaching 53 for two by the close.
Warwickshire assistant coach Ian Westwood said: “They bowled well this morning in helpful conditions, it’s fair to say.
“It probably did a bit more than we were expecting but we just weren’t able to show any ability to stay there or counter what they were throwing at us. It was a really disappointing morning.
“There was a lot of seam movement and some good balls flying around. They have got a good attack to exploit those conditions and they bowled nice and straight and targeted the stumps with enough movement there.
“I’m not sure any pitch is a 60 all out pitch. You need everything to go against you for that to happen.
“If we could have got another 50 even and then restricted them things would look different, but we fought back well in the last session with Yatesy and our tempo in the last session was good so we are still in the game, that’s for sure.
“I think it showed at the end there it was becoming a little bit easier to bat on. I’m sure there will be some good balls throughout the game but it’s pretty simple what we have got to do now – get as many ahead of them as we can and bowl them out.”
