Patel hits out at England omission

Riding on an accomplished century, Samit Patel took the opportunity to hit out at the England selectors at being overlooked for international duty since February.

After play ended following Patel's fourth century of the season, he expressed his satisfaction with his form throughout the summer and said he was "shocked and disappointed" to have been overlooked by England since the second T20 against New Zealand in Hamilton.

Patel said that he had been told by national selector Geoff Miller to be more consistent, which he thought was "harsh", and believes that his statistics since then have been compelling.

"All I can do is get hundreds here," he said. "Actually I'm very disappointed that England haven't been in contact in any format of the game. I'm very shocked and surprised but I think that's the way it goes. My stats at the end of the year should get me back in that team.

"I just got told I wasn't consistent enough, which I thought was very wrong, very harsh. Geoff said I wasn't consistent, which I wasn't happy about. It's unfair but you've just got to get on with it. Hopefully with my stats in white-ball cricket this year, I don't think they can ignore that for too much longer."

Patel is a curious case. He's played 59 games for England across all the formats, and his statistics stack up well, but sadly he is perhaps best known for doubts about his fitness. But there were no doubts about his fitness here or, indeed, throughout 2013. During his innings on day two he passed 1,000 first class runs for the season for the second time, and while Michael Lumb and James Taylor have marginally better batting averages for Nottinghamshire, neither can match his weight of runs. His 25 wickets have not hurt Nottinghamshire either.

Patel is aware that a high profile YB40 semi-final against Somerset next Monday at Trent Bridge is a big opportunity to put himself back in the England frame. "I need another crack at playing one-day cricket for England, that's for sure," he said. "I thought I had a great chance to be in the one day squad against Australia but they've only picked one spinner and that's just the way the selectors go I suppose."

Here, he led the way in putting Nottinghamshire into the strong position which the previous evening had been Warwickshire's. Nottinghamshire loss of three wickets at the tail end of the first day appeared to have them on the back foot, albeit that one of them was nightwatchman Luke Fletcher. But Patel was there when the day ended and pushed on through day two.

Patel and Steven Mullaney started the day with a job to do after the damage that Warwickshire had inflicted on the first evening. They needed to dig in, and that's what they did. They stayed together for 100 minutes and 68 runs before Mullaney slashed a short ball outside the off stump from Steffan Piolet and was caught at third man.

The other significant contributions to Nottinghamshire's score came from Riki Wessels and Andre Adams, who has had an outstanding game so far with both bat and ball. Wessels hit 12 boundaries in his 77 before being run out by a direct hit from Chris Woakes while attempting a quick single, and Adams scored 46 batting at No. 10.

Maurice Chambers, an intimidatingly large and quick bowler, was Warwickshire's principal weapon, and he became the third man in the match to take four wickets in an innings after Luke Fletcher and Andre Adams on the first day.

Warwickshire took a deficit of 61 runs into their second innings and found themselves in a similar situation to that which faced Nottinghamshire an evening earlier. They had 14 overs to negotiate with fresh bowlers running in at them.

Andre Adams and Luke Fletcher, the outstanding bowlers in Warwickshire's first innings, did the damage. First Fletcher made a ball rear up onto Ian Westwood's forearm and onto the stumps, then Adams trapped Varun Chopra lbw. Warwickshire have catching up to do, but this is still anyone's game.