Century by Nottinghamshire’s Alex Hales puts Warwickshire under cosh
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Version 0 of 1. Alex Hales is determined not to be categorised by England solely as a T20 option and has spent June making his point in the most persuasive way possible, by scoring more than 600 runs in the first division of the County Championship. Having begun the month with 167 against Sussex at Hove, Hales book-ended it with an even bigger innings on a ground where it is a surprise when he fails to get into three figures. This was the 25-year-old’s eighth first-class knock at Edgbaston and his 183, off 224 balls, means he averages 130 here. “The next aim is to try to target the one-day squad for the winter in the World Cup in Australia,” said Hales, who has played 32 T20 internationals but has yet to be picked by his country in another format. “The plan from the start of the year has been to prove I’m not just a T20 specialist. I’ve put in a lot of work and hopefully it’s paying off.” Seeing the score, many will wonder what the Warwickshire captain, Varun Chopra, was thinking of when he decided to put Nottinghamshire in. But while Chopra’s captaincy was a long way from being above criticism during the latest in a series of bad days for the Bears, Hales said Notts would also have bowled on a well-grassed pitch. Appearance, it quickly transpired, was in this case deceptive. While there was good carry for an impressively strong seam attack on paper, and initially a certain amount of swing, there was little movement off the pitch for Chris Woakes, Keith Barker, Chris Wright and Rikki Clarke . Notts’ openers, Phil Jaques and Steven Mullaney, brought the 50 up in the 12th over, and Mullaney’s dismissal, pulling a Clarke long-hop straight to deep midwicket, was predominantly of his own making. Jaques’ dismissal was equally unexpected. The Australian had hit 14 boundaries in racing to 77 when he nibbled at a delivery slanted across him by Jonathan Trott, quietly resuming his first-class career in a second attempt to come back from his stress-related problems. Tim Ambrose dived to hold the edge behind the stumps. It was Trott’s first championship wicket since April 2010. If it was a surprise to the Warwickshire supporters that Trott was bowling, few could understand why Chopra was ignoring Boyd Rankin. Fit again, the tall fast bowler spent much of the day loosening up before Chopra finally remembered – to sarcastic cheers from the crowd – that he was on the field. That the Irishman would take a wicket almost immediately was inevitable, James Taylor’s unconvincing pull resulting in an under-edge to Ambrose. And when Samit Patel gloved a catch behind soon afterwards down the legside, Chopra’s decision-making was loudly and derisively remarked upon. Most of the Nottinghamshire batsmen are in rich form, however, and Hales was joined by the only man above him in Nottinghamshire’s championship averages, Rikki Wessels. They compiled another century partnership for the fifth wicket. |