Warwickshire 373 for 7 (Hain 153*) drew with Nottinghamshire 487 (Verreynne 148*, McCann 130)
With all potential relegation permutations happily off the agenda at last, Warwickshire calmly settled down to avoiding defeat against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on the final day of the 2024 Vitality County Championship. Saving the follow-on with five wickets down effectively saved the game.
The draw, for which the pitch was probably intended from the start, thus duly arrived with ease, Notts taking 14 points to the visitors' 13. Sam Hain signed off the season with an unbeaten 153 and his overnight partner Ed Barnard made 81 before Michael Burgess struck 56 from 71 balls in an eventual 373 for 7 after the resumption on 143 for 4.
It was not until the 13th ball after lunch in fact that the fifth-wicket partners were finally separated after adding exactly 150. The wunderkind off-spinner Farhan Ahmed switched to bowling over the wicket for the first time in the day and Barnard, who had passed 5000 first-class runs on the way, immediately top-edged a sweep to the deep.
The catch was well judged by the 21-year old substitute Sam King, yet to gain a first-class debut, with Brett Hutton briefly off the field. But only 84 more runs were then needed to avoid the follow-on, reduced to 58 by the time Hutton returned to take the new ball five overs later.
In a challenging summer during which personal reasons and concussion had seen him miss six games, Hain had completed a heartening second hundred of the season from 202 balls just before lunch. As Ahmed shared the new ball, he remained the anchor while Burgess proved typically combative.
The follow-on target of 333 was passed with 43 overs remaining but the match, bonus points aside, long since academic as certain to be drawn. Burgess entertained with four sixes in all until he swiped at Lyndon James 21 runs later and failed to clear mid-on. Ahmed came off next over with three for 93 from 33 overs, good figures on this pitch.
A second substitute, James Hayes, also without first-class experience, then took a gentle catch at cover off Rob Lord as a loose cut undid Danny Briggs without score. After tea taken at 361 for 7, however, just four bonus-point overs remained, neither side adding to their tally. Notts brought Ahmed back on but he found no further success and bad light conveniently ended play at 3.50.
Warwickshire could reflect on a season of just one win but the boon of no fewer than 33 batting points, a total bettered only by Surrey and Essex in Division One. Added to the reinstated increased reward of eight points for each of their nine draws, it served them very well.
Nottinghamshire too benefited from eight draws and Lancashire would no doubt rue the fact that they arguably had a marginally better playing record than both their rivals but could muster just 15 batting points along with their four draws. They ended with three wins and six losses, compared to Notts' two wins, four losses and Warwickshire's one win also with four losses.
