Hayden forges foundation for Northants

A superb century from Matt Hayden, and another productive afternoon for spinner Ashley Giles, were the highlights of a see-sawing day's County Championship cricket between Northamptonshire and Warwickshire at Edgbaston today.

Australian import Hayden was at his rugged and authoritative best in an innings of 122 that contained as many as fourteen boundaries and four thumping sixes. In Hampshire colours three years ago, the powerfully built Queenslander plundered a double century and century against Warwickshire and he used the presence of a short boundary on the Pershore Road side of the ground to afford the same opposition another painful look at his talents today. In a hand that hinted strongly at both the range of his strokeplay and his vast reserves of concentration, he was the steadying influence around whom his team built to a total of 296/7 by stumps.

For Warwickshire, the prospect that a sound performance here could pave the way for it to assume leadership in the Division Two standings seemed to faze its front-line attack initially. With the omitted Ed Giddins looking on in forlorn fashion from the pavilion, new ball bowlers Allan Donald (1/38) and Alan Richardson (0/35) were both badly off target early and it was not until Giles (4/116) entered proceedings shortly before lunch that the attack began to genuinely assert itself. Without any great support, the left arm orthodox spinner worked his way steadily through the defences of Adrian Rollins (19), Mal Loye (2), David Sales (19) and Jeffrey Cook (27) before a completely unnecessary run out and, later, a surprisingly misdirected Hayden off drive further tilted matters in the home side's direction. All four of Giles' victims were taken at slip.

At that stage, a score of 240/6 raised visions of a relatively swift end to the innings. Moreover, it did not seem to reflect as much credit on the visitors' ardour for runs that it might otherwise have done; accordingly, Warwickshire appeared poised to place itself in precisely the sort of strong early position that their leadership ambitions demanded.

Thankfully for the sake of the match's future, and as fitting reward for the earlier application of his teammates, the resourceful Graeme Swann (58) then availed himself of the opportunity to turn the tide once more and signal that Northants is not generally in the business of granting such favours without a fight.