Cricket: Bell and Knight Play It Straight

Double acts featuring two straight men rarely work, as Little and Large audiences would ruefully testify. So it was here yesterday with Nick Knight and Ian Bell.

In chilly sunshine the sparse crowd huddled together for warmth and waited for the occasional flourishing blade in much the same way as theatregoers would once wait for a belly laugh from Eddie and Syd. It did not happen.

Knight and Bell are Warwickshire's best batsmen yet both are capable of concentration to the point of introversion. Yesterday they added a commendable 163 for the second wicket. But they spent 63 overs doing so.

Here, perhaps, is a Warwickshire weakness. They may be champions but unlike most counties they do not possess a dominating middle-order player. No master blasters here; a bomb disposal unit has been through the Edgbaston dressing room.

Warwickshire had lost their first wicket in the fourth over. Michael Powell, reverting to his opening role in place of the injured Mark Wagh, was caught behind by Geraint Jones off Amjad Khan attempting to take his bat away from a hesitant stroke.

At lunch Warwickshire were 102 for one, with Knight 68 and Bell 22, quarried from 78 deliveries. So far so average. But it was in the afternoon that Warwickshire most obviously failed to build on the strength of their position, having finished off the Kent innings in eight deliveries in the morning.

None of this should detract from the excellence of Kent's bowling. Min Patel wheeled away over the wicket and Simon Cusden, aged 20 but brisk and eye catching, was most impressive. Amjad Khan and Simon Cook, on his debut after moving from Middlesex, were also admirable.

But the monumentally experienced Knight and Bell, the best young batsman in England, should have found another gear. They were out in the same over, the 67th and the 22nd bowled by Patel. Knight, who had faced 209 deliveries, was caught behind pushing forward, as if feeling for spin that was not there.

Two balls later Bell, who had batted for almost four hours, was lbw attempting to cut a straight one. It was taciturn stuff when a little more self-expression was called for.

The rest of the Warwickshire batsmen got out attempting the hurry up. Jonathan Trott, who had been badly dropped by Jones off Cook when 15, added four before he was bowled off his pads by Patel, the bowler's 500th wicket for Kent. Then Dougie Brown hit a six and three fours in a 20-ball 22 before he square-drove uppishly to point. Warwickshire, after Alex Loudon and Tony Frost were lbw to Khan, ended the day 59 behind.