Barnard praises team as Bears earn two-day statement win in race for County Championship title

Warwickshire County Cricket Club Captain, Ed Barnard, was full of praise for his team after they won inside two days for the second successive week in the Rothesay County Championship to keep their title hopes well and truly alive heading into the final game of the season.

2026-09-16T19:40+01:00

The eight-wicket win over Essex at Chelmsford sees Warwickshire jump to the top of the Division One table with fellow title hopefuls Somerset and Nottinghamshire yet to conclude their matches against Yorkshire and Sussex respectively.

With the game evenly poised after the opening day, Barnard’s men, thanks to an unbeaten 88 from Sam Hain, extended their slender advantage to 57 after the first innings.

Indian international Manav Suthar (5-75) then impressed with the ball, taking five wickets for the Bears as they dismissed the home side for 189 to set up a 133-run chase in the final session of day two.

A run-a-ball 50 from Zen Malik, 33 from Rob Yates and unbeaten knocks from Dan Mousley (26*) and Hain (22*) got the Bears over the line as they maintained their push for a first title in five years.

“I don’t think I did expect a result [today],” Barnard said. “We were aware that if the game went how we wanted it to, and we bowled well again today, that there might be the opportunity to.

“I thought we were brilliant today. Even that middle session when things quietened down with the ball, we kept it nice and tight and then we got our rewards after tea.

“Then for the lads to go out and play like that. Zen [Malik] coming back into the team on late notice, for him to go out and pay the way he did. I thought that was really special and shows what this squad is capable of.

“We’ve got such strength in depth. It was really nice to see.”

Barnard highlighted the impact of the experienced Hain and overseas star Suthar, with both playing prominent roles across two enthralling days of cricket.

“Sam’s been incredible for us for a long time,” he added. “We’re very fortunate to have him and he just gets the job done. In difficult situations and on difficult pitches, he’s always the man. He stands up.

“I thought him and Olly, this morning especially, to put on that extra 40 runs got us to a total which allowed us to be ahead of the game again.

“Manav is perfect for our squad both on and off the pitch. He comes with loads of energy and wants to bowl all the time.

“He’s that final piece of the puzzle for us being a spinner, allowing us to control from one end, and when we are on a pitch that turns like this week, we’ve got a real attacking threat.”

Warwickshire will now go into the final game of the season at home to Leicestershire as one of three teams that can win Division One.

Barnard will have one eye on the results of both Somerset and Notts over the next two days but is excited by the prospect of having a chance at winning the title on home soil next week.

“There will be some working out at some point regarding points, but first of all, we’re going to enjoy what we’ve done here and what we’ve done these last five or six weeks,” he added.

“We can only control what we’re doing, and we’ll be going into that game to try and win it. We’ve won four out of the last five, and we believe we’re in a very strong position. We’ll just have to see where that takes us.”

Warwickshire’s final game of the Rothesay County Championship season gets under way at Edgbaston Stadium on Thursday 24 September at 10:30am.