The final installation of stultifying stalemate saw the home side, in reply to Northamptonshire’s 597 for 6, take their first innings to 568 for 4 before shaking hands at 4.40pm
Edgbaston (fourth day of four): Northamptonshire 597-6d, Warwickshire 568-4 – match drawn
score card
Warwickshire and Northamptonshire meandered their way to the inevitable LV = Insurance County Championship draw at Edgbaston where the match concluded with just 10 wickets having fallen in four days.
The final installation of stultifying stalemate saw the home side, in reply to Northamptonshire’s 597 for 6, take their first innings to 568 for 4.
Sam Hain (202 from 494 balls, 16 fours, one six) and Matt Lamb (155 from 230 balls with 16 fours) extended their partnership to an unbroken 254, a Warwickshire fifth-wicket record against Northamptonshire.
Against a toiling attack on a flat pitch, Hain and Lamb gently filled their boots during a final day which, like the three which preceded it, presented a less than compelling spectacle. The batting dominance was not entirely due to the pitch as both bowling attacks, missing spearheads Liam Norwell and Ben Sanderson, respectively, persevered nobly but lacked potency.
Simon Kerrigan bowled 37 overs unchanged without making a breakthrough [Alex Davidson/Getty Images]
After Warwickshire resumed on 394 for 4 on the final morning, Hain and Lamb batted serenely through the morning to take the total to 483 at lunch. Hain reached 150 from 378 balls while Lamb, having scored briskly the previous evening, settled for quiet accumulation. He advanced to 98 at lunch and reached his tone (163 balls) shortly after.
There was little that visiting skipper Ricardo Vasconcelos could do except rotate his bowlers, though he did not exercise that option very much at one end. Former England spinner Simon Kerrigan bowled unchanged at the Pavilion End from 2.55pm on the third day until lunchtime on the fourth – a grueling saga of 37 overs, delivered with not a shred of assistance from the pitch.
The left poor stuck to his task heroically but could have been forgiven, when he returned home with figures of 0 for 174 from 52 overs, for seriously considering the removal of the captain from his Christmas card list.
It was the little-seen medium pace of Emilio Gay to which Vasconcelos turned for the last hour and from this bowler that Hain clipped the leg-side single which moved him to 200 from 489 balls, 473 of which he had not struck for four.
Hands were shaken at 4.40pm and this match had, for most onlookers, slipped from memory by 4.45pm.
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