Warwickshire Crowned Champions After Innings Victory Over Leicestershire

Warwickshire sealed the ninth Rothesay County Championship title in their history by completing victory over Leicestershire by an innings and 79 runs inside eight sessions at Edgbaston.

Requiring 247 to avoid an innings defeat, the visitors were bowled out for 168. Ethan Bamber and Chris Woakes, who shared seven wickets in the first innings, wrecked the top and middle orders again with five for 52 and three for 38 respectively. Tom Scriven struck 49 (85 balls) and Sol Budinger struck 47 (48) and but Leicestershire’s farewell to Division One was pretty ignominious with none of their batters scoring a half-century in the match.

The triumph was noisily celebrated by a large and jubilant home ground. Big attendances for all three days of this match have underlined the passion and interest that the Rothesay County Championship still holds for spectators. Warwickshire’s players, who took some criticism from the fans after failing to qualify in both of this season’s white-ball competitions, deserve great credit for showing the strength and skills to put in a blistering last six weeks of red-ball cricket

After Leicestershire resumed on the third morning on 55 for three, Bamber and Woakes soon continued the demolition job they had begun in the first innings. The Foxes added just 14 before Budinger, having hit eight fours, had his off-stump rattled by an unplayable ball from Woakes.

Another key ingredient of Warwickshire’s success, excellent slip fielding, then came to the fore as the next three wickets were snaffled by the cordon. Jonathan Tattersall edged Woakes to Rob Yates at second, Ben Cox was taken by Sam Hain off Bamber at first and then Ben Green drove hard at Bamber and Will Young, at third, plucked a remarkable one-handed grab out of the air.

From 84 for seven, Ian Holland and Tom Scriven added 35 before the former (23, 55) fell lbw to Ed Barnard. A big turner from Manny Suthar knocked out of the off-stump of fellow spinner Ajaz Patel on the stroke of lunch. That triggered a half-hour extension to the morning session to give Warwickshire a chance to finish the job. Josh Hull, batting like Foxes predecessor David Gower in his prime, accompanied Scriven into the afternoon session but seven balls into the afternoon, Bamber knocked out two of Scriven’s stumps and the Bears’ celebrations could begin.