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Bears get battered!
Jul 26 2004
By Brian Halford
warwickshire's totesport League troubles deepened after they again failed to translate impressive four-day form into the 45-over format.
Surrey took revenge for their championship drubbing by handing the Bears a 90-run beating at Guildford.
The defeat dropped the Bears into the relegation zone and cranked up the pressure on them to hit back in tomorrow night's floodlit clash with Lancashire at Old Trafford.
With all three teams below Warwickshire at start of play - Surrey, Gloucestershire and Essex - winning yesterday suddenly Nick Knight's men are deep in a relegation battle. The self-belief which under-pins their cricket in the longer game remains strangely elusive in totesport fare.
Another concern from a chastening day at Guildford was a hand injury sustained by Mark Wagh. He damaged a knuckle on his left hand diving in the field and was due to have the injury assessed today.
He will miss tomorrow's one-dayer and is a serious doubt for the championship match following straight after. If a fracture is revealed, Wagh could be sidelined for weeks.
He was unable to bat yesterday but the Bears were struggling well before they reached the crease after Surrey piled up 315. James Benning (71 from 53 balls) and Rikki Clarke (70 from 69) delighted the big home crowd before Azhar Mahmood lashed five sixes in a brutal 56 from 27 balls.
The Bears were always ailing as wickets fell at regular intervals. Ian Bell rounded off a brilliant personal five days with 89 from 70 balls to take his Guildford tally to 340 in three knocks.
But support was sparse. Jim Troughton showed encour-aging signs of a return to form with 36 from 29 balls but the match was lost from a long way out. The Bears badly need to trim the Red Rose tomorrow.
