Warwickshire seamers out-gun neighbours

Warwickshire 264 (Hain 82, Evans 50, Leach 6-73) and 105 for 2 (Chopra 72*) lead Worcestershire 149 (Cox 45) by 220 runs
Scorecard

Warwickshire are in total control at the halfway stage of their LV=County Championship tussle with neighbours Worcestershire as wickets continue to tumble at Edgbaston.

The home side reached the close on the second day at 105 for 2 in their second innings, 220 ahead overall - a commanding position in conditions which have helped bowlers throughout.

Both seam attacks have exploited the conditions well but Warwickshire have taken the ascendancy not least because they selected four specialist seamers to the visitors' three.

Warwickshire's pace quartet, led by Keith Barker and Chris Wright, all chipped in as Worcestershire, replying to 264, were bowled out for 149 in only 42.5 overs.

Prolonged resistance came only from Ben Cox, who top-scored for the third successive innings for Worcestershire, and Tom Fell.

Warwickshire captain Varun Chopra compiled an unbeaten 72 before the close and, with a lot of time left in the match and the weather set fair, Warwickshire are well-placed to record their first Championship win of the season.

The only negative on their day came from an injury to 19-year-old Sam Hain who suffered a shoulder injury diving in the field. He will not bat again in this match and his injury will be assessed in the morning and then scanned later in the week to assess the extent of the damage.

Resuming this morning on 258 for 8, Warwickshire added just six runs before Joe Leach collected another wicket to finished with a career-best 6 for 73. But Worcestershire then hit serious pre-lunch turbulence.

Darryl Mitchell perished cruelly, run out backing up, before Wright trapped Moeen Ali lbw and had Richard Oliver caught at backward point and Barker yorked Alex Gidman and forced Alex Kerveezee to edge to third slip.

In the afternoon, Cox added 44 with Fell and 39 with Jack Leach to see Worcestershire past the follow-on figure but after Clarke removed the former, the last four wickets fell for 17 runs in eight overs.

With a whopping 46-over final session, and then two more days, ahead of them, Warwickshire could afford to take their time and William Porterfield, in particular, certainly did. After Ian Westwood edged Jack Shantry behind, the Ireland captain took 30 balls to get off the mark and crawled to four from 49 balls before perishing on the sweep to Sachithra Senanayake.

But Chopra remain firmly-rooted hitting seven boundaries with power to add.