Vs Coventry Uni 2’s
The UWMCC BUCS indoor team turned up at Edgbaston and were thrust straight into their game against Coventry Uni 2’s. John Faal won the toss and decided to bat, sending Ben Marjot and Danny Williams out to open up. They started steadily until Williams was bowled in the third over, followed swiftly by Marjot being narrowly run out pushing for a tight single. A couple of overs later, controversy struck as Faal was given out caught at short fine leg paddling away a shoulder high full toss. The decision stood and this brought Miten Khatri to the crease, who was joined by debutant Oli Thornley. Khatri fell early, bringing another debutant, Charlie Yorke-Starkey, to the crease. Together they squeezed out a few extra runs before Thornley was bowled and Yorke-Starkey caught and bowled an over later. The annual Edgbaston first game shellshock had struck once again and we found ourselves 30 or so runs light of where we wanted to be.
However, this left Coventry chasing 75 to win and after two impressive opening overs from Yorke-Starkey and Thornley, Cov were on the back foot and it was game on. The bowlers kept charging in and creating chances, however a dropped catch and a few missed run out opportunities put pay to Warwick’s hopes. Coventry eventually chased down the target with 8 balls to spare, leaving Warwick wondering what might have been, beaten by a team whose superior nous and experience of the indoor format got them over the line.
Vs Gloucestershire 1’s
Faal again won the toss and chose to bat, and the solid opening partnership of Marjot(25) and Williams(26*) delivered. Both adapted their games well and played some typically effective indoor strokes as well as a few well timed straight drives. Faal(15*) and Thornley(10) were left at the crease to finish off the job, ticking the score over and taking any runs available to them. Thornley was bowled in the last over with Khatri(6*) joining Faal and leaving Gloucestershire needing 93 off of their 10 overs to win.
Yorke-Starkey impressed again opening up the bowling, his 2 overs going for just 9 runs. This was backed up by 3 tight overs from Williams and some sharp fielding, yielding 2 run outs. However, there was a lack of wickets falling in the middle overs until the introduction of bowling all-rounder Marjot, who registered figures of 1.5-0-4-9, finishing the job off for Warwick and giving them the win. Despite a lack of practise indoors, Warwick gave a solid account of themselves and provided cause for optimism looking ahead to the next round of matches.