Ostler leads Bears to 244-6 at Trent Bridge

Warwickshire Bears, who elected to bat first, made 244-6 in their day/night match at Trent Bridge against the CricInfo-sponsored Nottinghamshire Outlaws. Dominic Ostler top scored, making 79 not out from 92 deliveries. Richard Stemp was once again the pick of the home bowlers, taking 4-36.

Notts were rocked before the start with the news that a back injury would sideline John Morris allowing Guy Welton another chance at the top of the order. Warwickshire made two changes from their last Norwich Union outing, bringing Anurag Singh and Keith Piper back into the starting line up.

With the floodlights already on Singh and Nick Knight opened the innings confidently but Notts missed the chance of an early breakthrough. Singh slashed David Lucas to point but Stemp couldn't hold the chance. The miss was to prove expensive as Singh began to hit the ball with venomous power. 47 runs came from the first ten overs but as Jason Gallian began to ring the changes the runs flowed at an alarming rate. Ten went from AJ Harris' first over and Paul Franks conceded eleven, including two no-balls, from his. The boundary boards were being peppered with regularity as The Bears took 43 from five overs before the fielding restrictions were lifted, with the score on 90-0.

Stemp, from the Pavilion End, began his first spell with a more defensively-set field and took just three deliveries to remove Singh. The opener mistimed a drive to short extra cover and Gallian took a sharp, low catch. Dominic Ostler, high on confidence after recent good form, drove his first ball to the boundary and again Notts were pegged back.

The Bears took the total beyond 100 in the 17th over and it was swiftly followed by yet another half century for Nick Knight. The England discard reached the landmark after facing 61 balls having hit 8x4's. With a huge total seemingly inevitable Notts then had a huge slice of good fortune as Knight played his first false shot and perished, slogging Stemp to David Lucas at mid-on. The spinner had picked up 2-15 from his first four overs to drag the visitors back to 118-2 from 22 overs.

His figures deteriorated slightly with the arrival at the crease of Trevor Penney, who pulled him for six on his way to a brisk 30 before being bowled round his legs by Usman Afzaal.

This was particularly sweet for Afzaal as he'd just seen Lucas spill Penney off his bowling. The part-time bowler then added a second wicket, with the help of the third umpire. Chris Read's stumping of Ashley Giles leaving the innings poised on 205-4

Aided by a lightning-quick outfield Ostler pressed on to his own 50, reached off 71 balls but Warwicks then pressed the self-destruct button as both Brown and Powell fell trying to play the reverse sweep off Stemp. Some lusty blows by Ostler, helped by a dropped catch from Franks, took The Bears up to their end of innings total of 244-6.