James Anderson makes the most of limited opportunities for Lancashire at Edgbaston
Warks (39-1) trail Lancs (227) by 188 runs
By Paul Bolton, at Edgbaston 8:30PM BST 04 May 2011
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James Anderson made the most of limited opportunities for three of England’s returning Ashes heroes to shine on Edgbaston’s controversial new outfield.
Anderson, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott were reduced to unfamiliar background roles for most of the day after Boyd Rankin took five wickets and Luke Procter and Gareth Cross produced the one partnership of substance in an inadequate Lancashire total.
But Anderson needed only 16 balls to claim his first championship wicket since last July when he had William Porterfield LBW, caught on the crease.
Anderson almost followed up with the wicket of Bell, Warwickshire’s captain in this match, who played inside the first ball he faced from his England team-mate.
Bell survived to fight on today and Anderson bowled tidily enough in his eight over opening spell and seemed less troubled by the craters that appeared on the bowlers’ take off areas during the day, perhaps because he bowled at the Pavilion End.
Warwickshire seamer Chris Woakes seemed to be particularly distracted by the holes that soon appeared at the City End. The groundstaff worked hard to repair them with cement but no sooner had they been filled than they reappeared.
Steve Rouse, Edgbaston’s head groundsman, explained that turf from the new outfield laid during the winter has yet to knit with the older grass on the square and may not do so for 18 months.
“We worked hard on it before the start of play but it needs time to take root and bed in,” Rouse said. “Unfortunately there isn’t a lot that we can do about it.”
The new turf was put down barely 18 weeks ago, just before December’s cold snap, and the situation is unlikely to improve in the near future. Warwickshire host an England v India Test in mid-August an can ill afford a repeat in such a high profile fixture.
They were hardly ideal circumstances for Anderson to play in, barely three weeks before the first Test of the summer, but it was to the credit of both sides that they made the best of a bad job.
Bell captained Warwickshire intelligently having stepped in to replace the injured Jim Troughton. Some of his changes may have been forced on him by the repair work to the take off areas but they usually worked.
Trott, who has scored more than 1,000 Test runs in the last 12 months, was restricted to bowling five overs in three spells with his occasional medium pace and had the least to do of the England trio.
Rankin was the most successful bowler, polishing off the innings with three wickets in five balls including Anderson who was taken by Rikki Clarke at second slip.
The same combination accounted for Procter to break the sixth wicket partnership and Lancashire would have been dismissed for under 200 had Clarke not missed Stephen Moore at second slip off Rankin in the final over before lunch.
It was tough going for the batsmen but Moore played some decent strokes on his way to 67 before he was LBW playing Rankin with his bat behind his pad.
It is two years since Moore made a championship century though a promising career was badly disrupted by a dislocated shoulder midway through last season.
Karl Brown and Steven Croft sold their wickets cheaply, both playing no shot to Clarke. Brown was bowled off stump and Croft was LBW.
Woakes had opener Paul Horton well taken by a diving Tim Ambrose when the take off areas were at their best.
The left-handed Procter, who made his debut in the corresponding fixture 12 months ago, recovered from a scratchy start to play with increasing fluency and help Cross stabilise the innings in an important partnership..
Cross, who is now Lancashire’s undisputed first choice wicketkeeper following Luke Sutton’s return to Derbyshire, struck the ball confidently from the start but perished in the over after Procter.
The end came quickly with Rankin making short work of a tail that was lengthened by the absence of Sajid Mahmood and Farveez Maharoof with minor niggles.
The rivals' first day back
James Anderson: Told Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott he was looking forward to bowling at them at Bell’s recent wedding, but he had a long wait. Took a wicket with his 16th ball, and beat Bell with the next.
Ian Bell: Captaining in the championship for the first time and got the first bit wrong by losing the toss. Controlled his attack and field well and will lead the reply today.
Jonathan Trott: Bowled five overs of medium pace and will hope to have a bigger role today.
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