WARWICKSHIRE Head Coach Ian Westwood says his side ‘need to keep getting better’ if they want to win trophies again.
The Bears suffered a 10-wicket defeat at Trent Bridge – and watched Nottinghamshire clinch the County Championship.
Warwickshire were bowled out for 133 after resuming day three on seven for three.
That left Notts to score 20 without loss to complete a dominant victory.
Afterwards, Westwood told the Bears’ official website: “Warwickshire, we’re a proud club and we want to win things, and so any season that you don’t win anything is going to be a disappointment.
“We know we need to keep pushing and the players know that we need to keep getting better if we want days like this and we want to lift trophies.
“I think up to the point the second new ball was taken on Thursday, the team had been really competitive and was very much in this match. So the outcome was disappointing really, but I think it sort of mirrored the season in many ways.
“We did lots of things right, but we just weren’t able to win the big moments. And that always costs you at the back end.
“One big partnership in the first innings took the game away and once we got behind on what was quite a tricky pitch, it was difficult. We probably had the tough end of conditions in this match, but that’s no excuse. We need to be better in those moments and try and limit the damage.
“We showed signs. I thought for the first two sessions yesterday, we were superb with the ball, and we put them under a lot of pressure, lots of plays and misses, and we just missed a couple of chances that would have really helped us.
“Notts were full of confidence, obviously. They’ve been crowned champions now, and that’s for a reason. They’ve been the best side this year,
and they just showed us where we need to improve and get to if we want that to be us.”
Notts had been eager to start their full-blown championship celebrations a day early after making sure of the title on Thursday.
As it was, Will Young was Warwickshire’s only casualty before lunch, falling into what looked like a trap laid by his former county as he clipped a ball from Mohammad Abbas straight into the hands of Lyndon James at square leg.
Zen Malik took four boundaries in a single over against Pennington but rode his luck at other times, edging the same bowler between second and third slips before surviving a difficult caught-and-bowled chance to James on 16. Warwickshire were 79 for four at the first break.
There seemed a case for tossing Liam Patterson-White the ball to add some variety to Warwickshire’s diet but the left-arm spinner remained stationed in the slip cordon as Hameed kept faith with his seamers, justifiably as it turned out.
There was still something in the pitch, as Sam Hain discovered four overs into the afternoon, caught behind off a ball from James that left him enough to take the edge. It felt like the key wicket for Nottinghamshire and one well deserved by all-rounder James for a consistently testing spell.
Yet it was Pennington who hastened Warwickshire’s demise in short order, taking three wickets in five balls in his 12th over of the innings.
He dismissed Malik leg before with a ball the batter could do little about and had Ed Barnard caught behind from a lifting delivery that took the glove before benefitting from some good fortune as Michael Booth looked to have kept out his first ball before it rolled into the stumps, as a consequence of which Warwickshire were eight down and still 12 behind.
They managed to get their noses narrowly in front before Hutton finished them off, still finding movement to pin Tazeem Ali leg before and bowl Nathan Gilchrist, who shouldered arms to a ball that swung away and then jagged back to bowl him – handing the stage to Slater and Hameed to finish the job.
