Preview: Warwickshire v Somerset, County Championship (2023)

Warwickshire’s season finale may not have the billing of a theatrical crescendo, but for everyone still involved there’s still plenty to play for.

matc

2023-09-25T16:00:59.000Z

Warwickshire’s season finale may not have the billing of a theatrical crescendo, but for everyone still involved there’s still plenty to play for.

That’s the view of Assistant Coach Ian Westwood, who was part of the coaching group who nervously watched on as the Bears created incredible drama in front of a raucous Edgbaston crowd.

In ’21, Chris Woakes (3/39), Craig Miles (3/26) and Liam Norwell (2/40) combined to bowl out Somerset for 154 and secure an eighth County Championship title and the first since 2012.

A year later, Norwell showcased his herculean effort of 9/62 to dismiss Hampshire for just 133, six runs short of their target, to ensure safety in the top flight.

This campaign the Bears are bringing back-to-back wins to Edgbaston with an eye on a top-three finish.

“We’ve done a lot of good things, but we want to get better. We spoke about not waiting until the end of the season to do that as we constantly want to improve the team. One of our goals is to always play to win and force results and with a bit of weather around in the last two games it’s been great to get two wins and shows the mentality within the changing room.”

Will Rhodes final interview as a Bear - Image 4

Another message to the group is about personal milestones and how individual performances can help a team environment.

Whilst chasing 50 wickets, or 1,000 runs may seem selfish on the surface, the results of those aspirations can be the difference between winning or losing.

That was the message from Chris Rushworth post-Surrey, with several players taking it to good effect.

“As a team, and individually, we want to get better, and people have put in good performances throughout the season,” added Westwood. “Chris Rushworth spoke really well at The Oval and highlighted it’s not always about the team goals, there are individual ones to be had too, which helps us on our way.

Standing in the Bears' way is sixth-placed Somerset, who after a draw with Kent, will also be vying to win.

“They’re a good team who are always competitive and they’ll bring a good attitude,” concluded the former Club Captain. “They’ll be desperate to finish the season on a high, as will we, with the third spot up for grabs.

“It’s not where we wanted to finish, we wanted to win the division, but with that not possible now we want to finish as high as we can. In the last two years, we’ve played must-win games to win the league and stay up, and if we take that attitude into this week it should be a really exciting game.”

Squad

Ed BarnardChris BenjaminKraigg BrathwaiteDanny BriggsMichael BurgessAlex DaviesHenry BrookesOlly Hannon-DalbyCraig MilesDan MousleyWill Rhodes (C)Chris RushworthRob Yates

How to Follow

Members and supporters can follow the match live in our Match Centre at edgbaston.com, which will include a free to watch Live Stream, with BBC commentary, and a live text commentary.

Supporters can get involved by sending their match day comments and thoughts on Twitter via @WarwickshireCCC and we’ll publish the best ones on our live text commentary in the Match Centre.

Supporters can also watch the Live Stream and get instant push notifications of all wickets, innings and match results via the Edgbaston app, which is free to download on iOS and Android.

Match updates will also be available across the Club’s social media accounts, simply search for @WarwickshireCCC.