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Second XI 2015 Season Review by Tony Frost Second XI Coach
gave us a fighting chance, although it would take something
exceptional to cross the line.
When you need your senior players to stand up and be
counted, to lead from the front and hopefully see us home,
the final day at Yorkshire was to prove to be one of those
day. This was when Freddie Coleman (118) and Jonathan
Webb (92) did just that, they stood up and led the way
adding a mammoth 206 for their partnership. A partnership
that ultimately won us the game all be it needing two very
calm heads in Aaron Thomason and Mark Adair to see us
over the line for an exceptional victory against a very good
2nd XI team.
These examples show how good some of the
performances in the championship have been this year but
there has been others who have performed just as well if not
better during other games, these include:
Joshua Poysden - who has continued to make big
strides forward in his development, producing match
winning performances not only for the 2nd XI but also
for the 1st XI in both the t20’s and 50 over league and
getting his just rewards making his first class debut for
Warwickshire against Sussex at Edgbaston. Also awarded
the most improved 2nd XI player of the year for 2015.
Mathew Lamb - A powerful batter who made his 2nd XI
championship debut this year with an excellent score of 146
not out against Worcester to put us in a very strong position
only for the weather to dictate the outcome. Mathew
followed that impressive start by scoring 99 in his very next
innings against Gloucester to remind us what a talented lad
he is.
Mark Adair - Overcame a difficult start to the season to
not only lead our attack on many occasions, a great effort
for such a young lad, but also to produce some excellent
performances which rightly saw him make his 1XI debut
against Somerset in the last championship game of the
season where he not only bowled well put contributed well
with the bat.
t20
This was a hit and miss season for us, playing some
very good cricket especially the friendly games against two
international sides but also being outplayed by stronger and
on occasions more skillful teams. We finished just below
mid table, but I feel that on the whole with the squad of
players we had throughout the t20 competition we should
have done better.
There were some stand out moments for the team during
the competition but none more than the two friendlies that
we played against the two international sides, Afghanistan
and Hong Kong. Two very attacking and dangerous sides
that have held their own on the international stage and
would provide our young squad an exciting opportunity to
gauge where their skill levels were in relation to an affiliate
side.
Afghanistan - at Wormsley CC
There are not many better places to play your cricket on
a beautiful summer’s day than in the Wormsley Estate.
We lost the toss and Afghanistan decided to bat. Our
bowling attack on that day consisted of Hannon-Dalby,
Milnes, Adair, Gordon and Sunny Singh and all were
outstanding. On a flat but slightly slow pitch they exploited
the conditions expertly and showed an International side the
high quality skills that they possess restricting them to 130-7
off the 20 overs.
This left the batters, not a fore gone conclusion, but one
I would expect them to chase down, and they did just that
in a very professional manner. Will Porterfield (62) and Tom
Lewis (54) combined high skill, power and on occasions
patience to put on an opening partnership of 114 to pretty
much guarantee a win. A very good win that showed the
future potential of some of our players.
Hong Kong - at Barnt Green
In some ways if our performance against Afghanistan
was good how we performed against Hong Kong was even
better, given the nature of the young team that we had and
we were playing a slightly stronger team.
Hong Kong won the toss on an excellent Barnt Green
pitch and decided to bat, the groundsman their have
produced some excellent pitches to play cricket on in the
past and this was no different. Their openers got off to a
flyer with I Ahmed scoring 20 off 8 balls, and M Chapman
(56) in the middle order but I have to give our young,
inexperienced bowling attack their dues, they kept their
nerve and weathered the storm to restrict them to 160-7 off
the 20 overs when 200+ was looking on with Mark Adair
returning figures of 4-29-3 and both Ben Brookes and
Sunny Singh taking 1 wicket a piece for not too many runs,
a total we were more than happy with.
Tom Lewis and Jonathan Webb got us off to another
good start putting on 77 for the opening partnership
before Webb (31) was caught going for a big shot. Good
start, things ticked over nicely until we lost a little cluster
of wickets in the early 100’s and then again in the 150’s to
leave the game in the balance. This was when Tom Lewis,
who had played beautifully mixing skill with power for the
whole innings, took responsibility scoring 82 off 51 and got
us to the point where we tied the game. A great game to
watch and which also showed how much potential we had
as a young side to come up against a strong international
side and tie the game with them, and if I was going to be
brutally honest a game we should have won if it wasn’t for
us losing a cluster of wickets on a couple of occasions.
To finish I feel I should mention that there has been four
100’s made for Warwickshire CCC since t20 started. One
in the 1st XI, and anyone who watched that magnificent
innings by Brendon McCullum would admit that they
witnessed something special, but also there has been 3 for
the 2nd XI in recent times. These have been made by Laurie
Evens, Jonathon Webb and now Tom Lewis who against
Worcester scored a superb 101 off 60 balls. The consistent
and exciting performances that Tom put in during our t20
