Downpour gets Bears out of jail

Jul 24 2007 By Brian Halford, Birmingham Mail

DARREN Maddy and a big fat downpour saved Warwickshire from a defeat that had looked likely for days against Kent at Canterbury.

The Bears went into lunch on the final day, yesterday, at 268 for seven, still requiring another 175 runs to avoid an innings defeat.

Then, to Kent's enormous frustration, the players had only just started attacking their sarnies when drizzle set in. It soon firmed up into a solid downpour and remained for the day. The Bears' bacon was duly saved.

They owed their four points for a draw largely to that downpour but also heavily to Maddy. While his colleagues came and went in the second innings, the captain defied for five and three-quarter hours.

His unbeaten 148, from 334 balls with 13 fours and three sixes, was a superb effort of concentration, technique and judgment. His third century in successive championship matches, it was his highest score yet for the Bears.

It was also a prime example of leading from the front. Since taking on the captaincy in April, Maddy has impressed in many ways, not least in his willingness to take responsibility when his team has most needed it. This was such an occasion - and how. Warwickshire resumed on the final morning on 187 for five with Maddy accompanied by a far-from-fit Jim Troughton.

Severely hampered by a sore back, Troughton gritted it out for 115 minutes before edging Andrew Hall to Geraint Jones. Had the accident-prone wicket-keeper not dropped a chance off Troughton half an hour earlier, Kent might have wrapped up the win before the rain arrived.

As it was, Naqaash Tahir hung around usefully but when he fell to the last ball before lunch the Bears were looking down the barrel. Then the rain came to ruin Kent's hopes of completing a victory which would have put some valuable space between them and the two relegation spots.

For Warwickshire, a 24-carat reprieve. After bowling punchlessy and batting, for the most part, fecklessly, still they did not lose the match.

The Bears start their Pro40 programme against Nottinghamshire under floodlights at Edgbaston tonight. Michael Powell is likely to replace the injured Troughton.

Powell will also figure in a Bears team, skippered by Luke Parker, to face Sri Lanka A in a three-day friendly starting at Edgbaston tomorrow.