Youthful Warwickshire let victory slip through their fingers

The Blaze (159/6) beat Warwickshire (158/8) by 4 wickets with 4 balls to spare

• Warwickshire set under-par total after a great start

• Young guns Austin and Surenkumar star with the bat for the Bears

• Ex-Bear Marie Kelly stars for The Blaze

• The Blaze comfortably win despite missing England and Scotland players

  
  

Watching Warwickshire play is a bit like watching a team made up of very keen, talented and excitable students on tour. They have that sense of camaraderie and joie de vivre of a group who are having an adventure together rather than doing a humdrum job.

There’s a reason for this – most of them are under the age of 23 and give the impression of unbounded optimism and confidence of people unaffected by setbacks and frustrations and failure. This is not a criticism, nor an attempt to patronise this incredibly talented group, but maybe it is an explanation of why their performance fluctuates, not only from match to match, but even within the same match, as occasionally they can transform from brilliant to poor in the blink of an eye.

There are some proper adults around amongst these young Bears to bring the odd wise word, of course. Abbey Freeborn, winner of the 2013 county championship with Sussex opened the batting with Meg Austin (who was in primary school Year 4 at the time). Between the two of them they hit 13 boundaries in the first 10 overs to take the Bears to 94/0 at the half way point of their innings – a more than adequate base from which to build a monumental total. 

Austin is a prodigious talent who lives somewhat in the shadow of her Staffordshire contemporary Davina Perrin. Carving the ball to all parts of the ground, she looked set to produce today the monster innings she has been threatening for a while. But alas! At the start of the 11^th over, she sent the ball tamely to Charli Knott at long on, and thus Warwickshire transformed from grizzly bears to teddy bears. In contrast to the first 10 overs, the next 10 produced only 64 runs, as a procession of Bears offered 40 minutes of catching practice to the grateful Blaze and the innings petered out into something very much under par. 

Fortunately for Warwickshire, The Blaze’s catching was woeful today, with at least half a dozen chances being shelled across the 20 overs. Acting captain Marie Kelly was responsible for a couple of these and Josie Groves damaged her finger putting down a straightforward chance on the boundary. 

Aside from the openers, the only batter to make a meaningful contribution was the pugnacious yet diminutive Amu Surenkumar. Her cameo of 27 from 15 balls was the sort of innings that a number of her teammates needed to have produced if Warwickshire were to have produced the 180+ total they were threatening at the half way stage.

When the Blaze began their reply, they sought to emulate what Warwickshire had done, and astonishingly, they managed to also hit exactly 94 from the first 10 overs, albeit for the loss of Tammy Beaumont, caught well by Surenkumar, diving forward whilst running in from deep square leg. Marie Kelly, who once was captain of Warwickshire, and today was stand-in captain for the Blaze, was at her destructive best, adding 63 runs in seven overs with Charli Knott.

Warwickshire, seemingly grateful for the generous fielding of their visitors, continued to put down catches as frequently as their East Midlands rivals had done, teenage star Phoebe Brett one of a number of butter-fingered fielders giving second chances to the Blaze batters today.

In the 11^th over, firstly Knott then Kelly departed, caught by her opposite captain Georgia Davis, just as she looked like she would get her half century. Much like Warwickshire had stuttered at this point, so too The Blaze, but chasing in these circumstances can be easier than setting a total, and in Georgia Elwiss, The Blaze have the ultimate experienced county pro, the sort of no-nonsense grown-up who can show these young whipper-snappers a thing or two about cricket. 

Firstly, with Ella Claridge, then with Emma Jones, she rotated the strike, chugged along at a run a ball, allowing Jones to hit the boundaries with her not so elegant, but highly effective reverse sweeps, so that Blaze needed only 3 runs from the final 9 balls when she was finally outfoxed, caught and bowled by the impressive Mary Taylor.

Georgie Boyce immediately came in and chipped the ball to mid-wicket, putting Taylor on a hat-trick. Lucy Higham survived the hat-trick ball, so Amu Surenkumar was left with the unlikely task of defending 2 runs from the final over. Jones and Higham hit the two singles required, giving the Blaze a comfortable victory by four wickets with four balls to spare.

Warwickshire should be livid. They should have scored at least 20 more runs, which would have presented the Blaze with a much more challenging task. It was that failure to convert a really good start to their innings into a winning total which urgently needs addressing.

They go to Durham on Friday with an early opportunity to put things right. The Blaze, seemingly unstoppable this season, will also face Durham next on Sunday. Coach Craig Cumming will be particularly pleased that this win was achieved without Kirstie Gordon and the Bryce sisters, without whom they must navigate the next month.