Fantastic effort

No, not the Hampshire top order (in the dog house, the lot of you!). Actually, one of them. Liam Dawson showed that his 50 against Kent wasn't a one off by playing a very accomplished innings in extremely tough conditions. On arrival Messrs Adams, Carberry, Hughes and Vince were all back on the balcony with their feet up, and the two at the crease, Dawson and Slug, didn't look comfortable either. Early on in his innings Dawson looked very shaky as the Warwickshire bowlers found swing and movement on a greenish wicket and in close conditions., playing and missing at multiple balls. However as his innings progressed Dawson soon found his feet, and the middle of the bat, scoring slowly yes but vitally occupying the crease, something the others seemed unable to do.

Having got a hold of conditions he looked a lot calmer at the crease, looking like he belonged in the middle at four, finally. His judgement of the line of the ball was excellent, vastly reducing the risk of getting out by simply getting the bat well away from the ball when it wasn't threatening his pads or the stumps. It was imperative that he stay at the crease until the close of play and though that came sooner than everyone was hoping, he was still not out and so job done for the day effectively. This has been Dawson's second vital knock in a week, and though neither of them have been huge scores their effect on the innings has been huge. It's safe to say that this late charge with the bat will give White plenty of selection conundrums next season.

You just can't overlook Corky either. Whilst Dawson treated everything outside offstump like a fresh dog turd, Cork was the veritable fly, launching himself at anything given a bit of width, and it paid dividends. 41* from 38 balls is pretty good as far as counter attacking innings go, the way he dispatched everything sent from the Pavillion End was particularly pleasing. Of special note was his cover drive off of Miller. It was one of those shots that as soon as you heard the sound of ball hit bat, you knew immediately what the outcome would be. Dawson wasn't completely Mckenzie-esque, though - the one over Tahir bowled was handled very positively by Dawson, who laid down a marker to show that he wasn't going to be tied down by spin.

Slug's shot to get out to must surely carry some sort of punishment, such was the mushed brained effort. However I think having been spared the pain of seeing the first four wickets then I'm not too despondent!