Surrey showed the intent and incision of champions as they reduced Warwickshire to 143 for eight on a truncated opening day of their LV=Insurance County Championship tussle at Edgbaston.
Warwickshire have started the season brightly but there was nothing bright about a damp day in Birmingham with the cloud low and the floodlights on. It was seam-bowling heaven and Surrey’s seamers, led by Kemar Roach (three for 31) took full advantage.
Dan Mousley underlined his immense potential with a skilful unbeaten 55 (125 balls) but, despite the loss of almost half the day to the weather, Surrey made swift enough progress to feel confident of advancing to another victory to follow last week’s hammering of Hampshire.
Even without the rested Sean Abbot the visitors still had plenty of quality in Roach and Dan Worrall. They greedily exploited murky conditions redolent of May 16th, 1953, at The Oval when these two teams discharged an entire championship match in a day (Warwickshire 45 and 52, Surrey 146).
After Surrey won a very handy toss, Roach struck with the 14th ball of the match, a gorgeous off-cutter which Rob Yates edged to fourth slip. Two wickets followed in three balls when Will Rhodes edged Worrall to second slip and Alex Davies, having looked secure, top-edged a bizarre cross-the-line swipe at Roach.
After Tom Lawes’ superb inswinger uprooted the in-form Sam Hain lbw, Mousley and Ed Barnard dug in to add 45 in 12 overs before the latter edged Worrall to second slip. Michael Burgess made 178 in this fixture last year but had to settled for 178 less this time round when he drove a low return catch to Roach.
That was 93 for six but Mousley stayed firm. Having batted with considerable style and freedom for a career best 94 against Kent in the last game, this time he showed he also has the technique and temperament to deal with a laterally moving ball.
Chris Woakes (27, 37 balls) smote the first six of the match, a top-edged pull off Lawes, and helped Mousley add 48 in 12 overs but was then trapped in the crease by Jordan Clark and plum lbw. When Hassan Ali fell, equally plum, first ball, the end seemed in sight for Warwickshire’s first innings, but the end of play came first, almost immediately, as the rain returned.
