Assistant Head Coach Kadeer Ali assured there is plenty more opportunity for his side in the Rothesay County Championship fixture against Warwickshire, despite finishing a testing day of Division One Cricket 99 runs behind their opponents, who have nine wickets intact.
In very testing conditions, both overhead and on a surface aiding seam movement, the host’s batters were given a stern examination by the visitors bowling unit, who worked their way through the middle order to reduce the Pears from 80-1 midway through the morning session, to 227 all-out.
Ali, was full of praise for the seam attack, in particular Chris Woakes and Chris Rushworth, who shared seven wickets between them.
“If you throw in the cloud and overcast conditions, I think they showed quality in the attack. Chris Woakes, obviously and Rushworth, both fantastic bowlers, they made it very difficult for our batters today.
“They like to really work hard. It’s very similar to the first couple of games. Probably not as much happening as the previous two games, but still enough to keep the bowlers interested and it’s been a real challenge today. The boys had to really fight hard.
“After the start we had, getting to 80 for one, unfortunately we weren’t able to build on to that.
In a day that typified Division One cricket, there was no let up for the home side at the crease. Jake Libby’s conservative 45, and Kashif Ali’s watchful 31, were the two highlights in an otherwise quiet batting card for the Pears.
Watching on, Ali, confessed there were times when runs looked extremely difficult to come by for his side.
“I was sitting upstairs just watching and thinking, where’s that next one going to come from, it was that difficult. Every ball looked like an event.
“There’s play and misses, you know, there’s nicks that didn’t carry, nicks that carried that got put down. They didn’t miss today.
“I thought Libs and Rodders, had that really good intent. I think today, when they (Warwickshire bowlers) got the lengths right, today was really challenging, because they had ball nipping off the wicket, and the overheads made the ball swing quite a lot as well.”
In amongst the middle order struggles, Kashif Ali, occupied the crease for over two and a half hours, as he dug deep for his 31 off 116 balls.
Adapting from his usually aggressive style, Ali, displayed unwavering patience and control, as he fought valiantly whilst wickets fell around him.
Assistant coach, Ali, was delighted with his batter, and explained just how impressive the knock was given the circumstances.
“It was a slightly different innings to what we’re kind of accustomed to with Kash. If you know him, he likes to be the free flowing batter that looks to put pressure on the bowlers.
“After the chat I had with him tonight, he found it really challenging and difficult today. There was balls in there that really caused him big issues, but he worked really hard today.
“There’s still a lot of cricket left in the game. In the three innings so far, the new ball hasn’t done too much damage. The first innings reached 70 for two, we were 80 for one and then today 50 for one. So a lot has happened after maybe 20 overs.
“There’s a lot of cricket left to play”.
