Cricket: Only Ostler keeps Twose company: Min Patel takes prized scalp

Warwickshire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .316-5

Kent

EDGBASTON suffered a power failure while the double world record-holder Brian Lara had one of timing, being dismissed for 19 when miscuing a pull from Min Patel, an England hopeful, to short midwicket.

The clocks on the pavilion and press-box stand stopped at lunch, a scoreboard was in suspended animation at 134 without loss for the next three hours and Roger Twose ensured that he, not Lara, was the left-hander of the day.

Twose made 142 from 256 balls with 15 fours, increasing his average to beyond 75 before being run out by a direct hit from Matthew Fleming after Trevor Penney turned a ball behind square leg.

Patel, a 23-year-old and slow left-armer, also laid claim to the kudos. He took his 47th first-class wicket this summer, more than any other bowler, when inducing Lara to swat a delivery to Fleming.

Lara was short-circuited, surviving a stumping off Patel before being ousted without addition in the Bombay-born bowler's next over.

After Dominic Ostler shared an opening stand of 196 with Twose, no other Warwickshire batsman batted with anything resembling comfort.

Ostler, with only 216 runs in eight previous Championship innings, had regained his touch until Patel deprived him of a sixth hundred with a low, return catch.

Julian Thompson, a doctor of medicine and quick bowler, prescribed a long hop for Paul Smith and it had instant effect, bringing his maiden first-class wicket with a catch to square leg.