Easy pickings for Knight and Bell

Warwickshire 348 for 1 (Knight 179*, Bell 119*) v Middlesex
Scorecard

Ian Bell reaches his hundred © Cricinfo

Warwickshire made the most of a placid pitch and some innocuous bowling to close the first day of their Championship match against Middlesex at Lord's on 348 for 1, with Nick Knight and Ian Bell both making hay - and hundreds - in the sunshine.

From the moment that their stand-in captain Owais Shah lost the toss, Middlesex appeared to accept that their bowlers would struggle, and so opted for a policy of containment. It was a gamble that effectively admitted that their only chance of winning was to rely on Warwickshire's generosity and a fourth-day run-chase. The attempted strangulation of runs worked to a degree, although Knight in the morning and Bell in the evening both broke the shackles and scored with relative ease.

From the off, Knight and Mark Wagh (43) put pressure on the fielders with some sharp singles. Knight's only real false shot of the morning came off the first ball, when he airily flicked Nantie Hayward to leg for four, narrowly evading the close-in fielder. But thereafter, Knight was largely untroubled and was severe when given width on the off or on anything short on the leg.

Wagh started cautiously, not hitting a boundary for an hour, but then he opened up with some exquisite flicks off his legs and one sumptuous drive off Paul Hutchison. Shah turned to Jamie Dalrymple's offspin on the point of lunch, Wagh's concentration lapsed, and he tamely edged straight to Paul Weekes at first slip (118 for 1). That was to be Middlesex's last success of the day: Knight and Bell have so far put on 230.

The spinners - more second-stringers than the new Edmonds and Emburey - undertook the bulk of the afternoon's bowling duties, and the mystery was why the one specialist, Chris Peploe, only bowled ten overs all day. The left-arm spin successor to Phil Tufnell - he even has a hop in his run-up - the lanky Peploe has already impressed many with his flight and attitude, and he should have had Bell (then 24) with his second ball, but Ben Hutton dropped a sharp bat-pad chance at silly point. Shah appeared wary of using him - Peploe's second (three-over) spell only came to hasten the taking of the new ball - and on a day more adventurous captains might have taken the opportunity to let him learn, he was consigned to fielding duties.

Knight brought up his hundred midway through the afternoon and then contented himself with steady progress, safe in the knowledge that a four-ball was never too far away. Bell collected his boundaries in braces, reaching his fifty with successive drives off Dalrymple and, in the final half-hour, his hundred with two crisp cover-drives off Peploe. But although Bell completed his second century of the summer, he never dominated, and too often found the fielder rather than the gap.

Bell should have fallen shortly before the close when he drove loosely at Hutchison, only for Dalrymple at first slip to juggle several times before both he and the ball ended up motionless on the ground. he had another reprieve in the next over, Ben Scott, the stand-in keeper, the culprit. On a day in which there was not a single shout for leg-before, and not even many deliveries which beat the bat, every chance was priceless.

Of Middlesex's two imports, Hayward bowled well and, after a mediocre first spell, was the one bowler who troubled both batsmen with movement and pace. Lance Klusener, however, looked limited and rarely threatened. That he bowled more overs than any other bowler owed more to the idiosyncratic captaincy of Shah than anything he did with the ball.

Shah's leadership was a puzzle. He didn't give much impression of imposing his authority on the proceedings, allowing some bowlers to bowl too long and others not enough. The fields he set were defensive - understandable given the policy of containment - but he was inconsistent. Ed Joyce, the ninth bowler used, warranted a slip ... but Hutchison at the other end apparently didn't. Shah also failed to stem the steady flow of sharp singles.

The portents were bad for Middlesex when Hayward left the field in the morning and there was no 12th man available. Shah called to the balcony for someone to come out as a replacement, and a disembodied voice from the dressing-room intoned that "They're looking for him". Middlesex resumed with ten fielders. As it turned out, they could have done with another half-dozen or so.