Westwood has help from pros

Aug 16 2007 By Brian Halford, Birmingham Mail

IAN Westwood admits he has reaped the benefit of having "great pros" Darren Maddy and Kumar Sangakkara around him in Warwickshire's batting order.

Westwood has just hit the best form of his career making it all the more frustrating that bruised ribs have kept him out of the current, albeit rain-wrecked, champion-ship game against Kent.

The injury has denied the 25-year-old a chance to emulate his skipper Maddy in stringing together three centuries in successive championship games.

Last month, Maddy rattled up tons against Hampshire (123), Yorkshire (135no) and Kent (148no).

With Westwood striking 116 against Durham and 110 v Sussex in the last two games, it meant one of Warwickshire's openers reached three figures in each of the last five four-day games.

Westwood's burst of form was especially welcome in the light of Maddy's call-up for the Twenty20 World Cup, ruling the skipper out of the season's closing weeks.

"We will be without Darren for the last couple of games, which is brilliant for him," said Westwood. "Obviously we will miss him but we have got a good squad so hopefully we will be okay.

"I will just try and keep going. I was very pleased at Hove that I followed up one century with another.

"I have got a start plenty of times this season but then not gone on to play a big innings. That was a concern so it was a huge relief to get a hundred at Durham. I said then that hopefully that would kick-start me and give me the confidence to go on and do it again. That showed at Hove.

"It helps a lot to bat with Darren and Kumar. They are great pros and great players so I try to talk to them as much as I can and build up the partnerships when we are out there - a two against 11 kind of thing.

"It's working well at the moment. I'm loving it having the chance to bat with Kumar. He is a quality player and helps me along," he said.

Westwood, who suffered his rib injury when Richard Montgomerie laid into an Alex Loudon long hop at Hove, has a slight chance of returning to face Yorkshire at Scarborough next week.