WARWICKSHIRE head coach Ian Westwood insisted the county had made a good start to the season – despite being ‘desperate’ to win their drawn match with Surrey at Edgbaston.
Ben Foakes made a career-best unbeaten 174 on day four for defending champions Surrey, to ensure that the game ended in handshakes in the afternoon.
Foakes amassed 174 from 361 balls, the last 107 of them in a 10th-wicket stand of 158 in 58 overs with Matt Fisher (40, 145 balls) as Surrey totalled 504 in reply to Warwickshire’s 665 for five.
On a strong batting wicket, the game’s third innings finally began at 3.15pm on the final day.
Surrey, following on, reached 15 without loss before a downpour arrived to wash out the last session.
Westwood said: “We turned up with a lot of hope and expectation, and I think if we had managed to get that wicket early, out there with fresh legs and a new ball it might have been very interesting. But it was always going to be difficult and it proved so.
“But I don’t want this to put a dampener on how well we have played on the first three days. Yes, it was a good batting pitch but we got stuck in and managed to get a big total and then I thought the highlight was yesterday’s performance with the ball.
“The effort and skill was fantastic, and then a fiery eight-over spell from Che Simmons really cracked it open and gave us hope that we could push for a win.
“Che and Zen Malik did really well in this match and it’s nice to give opportunities to people who you think they can do it and when they go out and perform, it’s great for everybody. It grows the squad and gives you more depth and competition for places.
“It’s been a good start to the season. We were desperate to win this game, but a solid, high-scoring draw against Surrey is not the worst result by any means and puts us in a good place going into the next two games before we go into the T20.”
Surrey resumed on the last morning on 369 for nine, still 147 short of the follow-on figure, but Warwickshire knew they had to polish off the first innings quickly if they were to press for victory.
The excellent Foakes ensured that did not happen. He soon advanced down the pitch to strike Rob Yates for successive sixes; the first took him to 9,000 first-class runs and the second to his 17th first-class century (from 197 balls).
Foakes and Fisher batted through the morning session to add 118 in 39 overs as the Bears battled hard to break the partnership.
Surrey’s rearguard action finally came to an end when Fisher edged Ed Barnard to wicketkeeper Alex Davies.
Despite having just spent 178.2 overs in the field, Warwickshire enforced the follow-on with a minimum of 43 overs left in the day. However, after just five of those overs, with Surrey 15 without loss, a terminal thunderstorm arrived.
