Giles piles on the runs - again

Ashley Giles has every reason to look back on this week with particular pleasure. Following his century in the NatWest trophy competition the previous day he hit 98 to save Warwickshire from a precarious position in their championship match with Sussex at Edgbaston.

It was a timely reminder to the England selectors. Neil Smith (87), the home captain, was his partner in a 178 runs record seventh-wicket stand. It had been so different earlier in the day as Jason Lewry (6-66) and James Kirtley scythed through the early Warwickshire batting. When Giles and Smith were parted, Lewry came back to knock over the lower-order with a spell of three wickets for five runs in 20 balls. Warwickshire were out for 252, and by the end of the day Sussex stood at 55-2.

At the start Lewry and Kirtley made full use of the overcast conditions to reduce their hosts to 39-6. Giles and Smith then settled down and battled their way out of trouble. In the process they passed the previous record of 153 by Arthur Croom and Reg Santall in 1928. Just two short of his hundred Giles nervously edged a ball from spinner Umer Rashid to Michael Bevan at first slip. Nineteen runs later Smith, who had achieved his season's personal best, was bowled off-stump by Lewry.