Worcestershire Captain Brett D’Oliveira reflected on a challenging opening day at Edgbaston, where a combination of some disciplined Warwickshire bowling and difficult conditions made run-scoring an obstacle for the visitors.
After openers Jake Libby and Gareth Roderick saw out the opening hour, the away side fell to 50-3 late on in the first session.
Partnerships were built, but not capitalised on, as both the fourth and fifth wicket stands accumulated over 50-runs, but the in and set batters fell at crucial times, with Adam Hose (40) and D’Oliveira (57) exiting during a turgid afternoon session.
Ethan Brookes (80*) will resume in the morning, with D’Oliveira hopeful the all-rounder can bat on and take the side up to the 300-mark.
“I think we’re slightly behind it, just a little bit – it would’ve been nice to go into the end of the play with a few less wickets down. I felt like we had a couple of opportunities throughout the day to go quite big with couple of partnerships, but unfortunately, we didn’t do that today. However, still massively in the game.
“I thought credit to Warwickshire. I thought they bowled really well. As previously mentioned, I didn’t think we quite capitalised on the partnerships that we had.
“A couple of 50 partnerships, the silly run out, which is probably my fault, you know, all those things added up and didn’t quite go our way today, but hopefully we can get close to 300 tomorrow”
In what has been a testing season in Division One of the Rothesay County Championship, Worcestershire’s batters have faced an unrelenting task each week against a plethora of top quality attacks.
The frustration for the skipper however, was that plenty of the top-order got in and worked through the difficult periods early on, but were not able to kick-on and make a game changing contribution.
After facing 148 balls, D’Oliveira edged behind to Warwickshire keeper Kai Smith, before Ethan Brookes batted through until the close to keep his side in the hunt heading into the second day.
“I think it’s been really challenging. We’ve played some good bowling attacks and some on some hard wickets, especially at home. We know that. But having said that, I haven’t quite hit my straps this year, apart from the first game of the year, so it was just nice to get some runs today.
“And you look back on certain dismissals, you can pick them apart. I try not to do that too much. But yeah, I think the key is when you get in to try and go on, that’s why I’m pretty annoyed today that I didn’t manage to do that.”
Having won the toss, D’Oliveira elected to bat first, raising some eyebrows with his decision as the skies darkened over Edgbaston and the floodlights came into play before the clock hit midday.
The wicket looked favourable to bat on however on initial, and the skipper’s decision was vindicated somewhat by Brookes’ excellent batting display in the evening session, after earlier starts had shown promise.
“Looking at the pitch, it looked like a nice wicket, but the overheads remained throughout the day. I felt like the lights were on most of the day as well, but with the hardness of the ball, you know, it did, it did offer at times. But I thought Ethan played a standout innings.
“He’ll try and play what’s in front of him, which he did brilliantly well today, and hopefully kicks on tomorrow, and gets us close to that 300 mark.”
