County Championship: Hain & Latham steer Bears to draw with Somerset

Warwickshire and Somerset harvested a predictable County Championship draw as a forgettable match finally petered out on the final day at Edgbaston.

Set a notional victory target of 377 in 69 overs, Warwickshire plodded to 161-4 as Tom Latham (52 from 103 balls) and Sam Hain (68 not out from 157) escorted their team to safety and the match to a stalemate.

Somerset had extended their second innings in the morning to 229-8 but not as quickly as they hoped as Australian off-spinner Corey Rocchoccioli took 5-67 on debut.

It had always appeared that a bland pitch would blunt the victory aspirations of either side and so it proved.

Both shored up their positions in the middle of Division One with a solid points haul from a match which offered less than vivid entertainment.

The deployment of two short mid-wickets and two short extras for Latham off Migael Pretorius was about as exciting as it got for the slumbering Edgbaston faithful.

Somerset resumed on the final morning on 116-3, 283 ahead overall, and started purposefully.

James Rew completed a 66-ball half-century but two wickets for Rocchoccioli slowed the momentum and changed the plan.

The spinner unfurled a lovely turning delivery which Rew, on 61, edged to wicketkeeper Kai Smith and Tom Banton then missed a sweep and was lbw.

Bowling coach Steve Kirby had suggested after day three that Somerset would need 80 overs to try to bowl Warwickshire out, but that point arrived with the lead only 317.

Tom Abell and Archie Vaughan batted watchfully to prevent a collapse then expanded to add 65 in 14 overs before Abell charged and missed at Rocchoccioli.

Pretorious had his off-stump removed by Ethan Bamber and Rocchoccioli’s five-for was complete when Craig Overton missed a reverse sweep and was lbw, triggering lunch and the declaration.

To challenge the target – 377 in two sessions – Warwickshire needed a strong platform but they lost soon both openers. Alex Davies fell to the fourth ball, lbw to Matt Henry and Rob Yates left a gap between bat and pad and Jack Leach, who opened the bowling, turned the ball through it.

That scuppered any chance of a Warwickshire win, but Somerset’s hopes were ground away over the next two hours by Latham and Hain, who declined to pursue a target of 276 from 34 overs after tea.

Latham drove a return catch to Overton and Jacob Bethell top-edged a pull at Pretorius but the implacable Hain reached 50 for the 58th time in first-class cricket to see the job through in a sparsely-populated stadium as far-removed as can be from the passionate cauldron it will be when England meet India next week.

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