Durham suffered a nine wicket defeat by Warwickshire at Edgbaston in the fourth round of this year’s LV= County Championship.
For the action, as it happened, take a look at our Live Match Chat from the day’s play here www.durhamccc.co.uk/live-match-chat
At the close of play Durhamccc.co.uk spoke to Head Coach Geoff Cook and Captain Phil Mustard.
Head Coach Geoff Cook said, “I think we always felt that it was going to be a low scoring wicket, it had been suffering from ten days rain here. We had a chance of getting to 220 but there was a collapse in our first innings that we’ve seen too often this season already.
“It was thanks to the tail that we got to 160, which might have been a reasonable total if it hadn’t been for a fine innings from Ian Bell for Warwickshire. All cricket teams talk about partnerships and when the going is good you’ve got to capitalise on it, especially in conditions that are bowler friendly and that’s something we haven’t been able to fulfil this year.
“We’ve got some pretty good players and they haven’t been able to get any totals on the board. You try and be objective in terms of the analysis but in the end they all could have scored more runs and that’s something we have to rectify very quickly.
“Warwickshire have some very good players, we played well against them last year and they have been strengthened by the two England players this time around, which added more confidence to an already confident side, they’re a strong team and have all bases covered, but it’s a long season and there’s a lot of cricket to be played between now and September.
“We have certainly got to try and get better with bat and ball and be ready for Somerset next week.”
Phil Mustard added, “It was a poor game from us, we can’t get ourselves into a great position when we keep getting fifty odd for five every game. I think the bowlers ran in for us really well and did a good job but as a batting unit we understand what needs to be done.
“We’ll get home tonight and have then have a few days of good practice and hopefully the batters will find a bit of form.”