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Peter Fulton’s twin centuries put him in rare company as he became the fourth New Zealand batsman to complete this feat

Andrew McGlashan in Auckland25-Mar-2013It has been an extraordinary few days in the life of Peter Fulton. A maiden Test hundred on Friday, then another century to make it back-to-back tons in the same match on Monday, then being included in a tweet by John Key, New Zealand’s Prime Minister.His post had gone unnoticed by Fulton, until it was mentioned after play. “I’m not on Twitter,” he said. “I hadn’t heard that. I guess that’s one to cross off the list.”In front of his parents, and an increasingly large band of supporters, Fulton wrote himself a place in New Zealand’s history books with a crunching straight six off Stuart Broad, to become just the fourth New Zealand batsman – after Glenn Turner, Geoff Howarth and Andrew Jones – to score twin hundreds in a Test. Small boundaries or not, it was a mighty blow with which to reach a landmark.His second fifty took 41 balls, as the confidence and adrenalin surged through him. Gone was the understandable nervousness of his maiden hundred, during which he sweated on 99 for 10 balls, with his last 36 runs taking 143 balls. The situation had changed, and so did the batsman, which showed that Fulton is not just someone to grind out an innings. An over against Monty Panesar changed the tempo as he took the left-arm spinner for 14 off three deliveries. From then he was unstoppable, until clubbing to long-on for 110.”I thought if he [Broad] pitches it up, I’m going to try and hit it back over his head,” he said. “It’s just one of those things, I just wanted to get there and make sure we kept being aggressive. I didn’t want to slow down too much looking for a personal milestone.””The first innings was a bit nervy, and I’d decided when we came out after lunch that I’d just play the same way as I had before, regardless of what score I was on. It made for slightly less of a nerve racking time for myself anyway.”Early on during the onslaught, Matt Prior thought it was a decent time to mention the lack of runs Fulton had scored through the off side – in the first innings he made 107 of his 136 on the leg side, second time around it was a 64-46 split. There were not many words from the England team when he launched a skimming flat six over long-off against James Anderson.”I guess everyone would like to be able to score to all parts of the ground, but you’ve got to make do with what you’ve got,” he said. “I can play through the off side, but I guess I’ve already been out three times trying to play through the off side in the series. It’s probably a bit silly to keep trying to flog a dead horse. It was nice once I’d got myself in to play a few through the off side. I’m not really too bothered where they come, or what direction they go in, as long as I get them.””The situation of the game helped, it’s a bit tougher to play like that on day one. You hit one straight up in the air, and you get castigated for it. It was nice to show a few people, who don’t watch a lot of domestic cricket, that I can bat like that, and adapt to the situation.”Fulton has helped give the team stability in an area they had floundered for a long time. Hundreds by openers had become a collector’s item, and now there are three in a series for only the second time for New Zealand. Fulton’s part could so easily have not happened, at the age of 34, especially after a knee injury in South Africa curtailed his first attempt at a comeback late last year. “Hopefully it proves if you keep sticking at it, and you don’t lose faith in yourself, then good things can happen.”

أعلن المدير الفني للفريق الأول لكرة القدم بنادي نانت، بيير أريستوي، عن تشكيل اللاعبين الذين سيخوضون مباراة تولوز في الجولة الخامسة والثلاثين من بطولة الدوري الفرنسي.

وتنطلق مباراة نانت وتولوز على ملعب الأخير مونسيبال في تمام الساعة الخامسة والنصف بعد تأجيلها ساعة ونصف وفقًا لقرارات أمن الملعب.

اقرأ أيضًا.. نانت يوضح لـ بطولات موقفه من شراء مصطفى محمد

𝗟𝗲 𝗫𝗜 𝗱𝗲 𝗱𝗲́𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 du Coach Pierre Aristouy.

🔜 #tfcfcn pic.twitter.com/Rl4PBDRjhQ — FC Nantes (@FCNantes) May 14, 2023

وشهد تشكيل نانت استبعاد مهاجم الفريق الأول لكرة القدم ولاعب منتخب مصر المعار من جالطة سراي، مصطفى محمد، بدون أسباب.

لم يظهر مصطفى محمد سواء في التشكيل الأساسي أو الاحتياطي المعلن من قبل نادي نانت رغم عدم الإعلان عن إصابته خلال الأيام القليلة المقبلة.

ويحتل نانت المركز السابع عشر والمهدد بالهبوط إلى دوري الدرجة الثانية برصيد 32 نقطة، وهذا هو سبب إقالة المدرب السابق، أنطوان كومباريه، واستبداله بأريستوي قبل أيام قليلة.

Match facts

January 6-10, 2012
Start time 0900 (0330 GMT)Harbhajan Singh has been out of form for a while•Fotocorp

Big Picture

The Steel City is still mourning the retirement of Ratan Tata, its most beloved personality. But at the Keenan Stadium, traditional home of cricket in Bihar and now Jharkhand, it is time to move on as a crunch Ranji Trophy match is at hand. With the young bunch from Jharkhand having surprised many by making it to the quarter-finals, it’s time for them to rise up to the occasion against a star-studded Punjab line-up.Shahbaz Nadeem, the Jharkhand skipper, tried his best to underplay the star factor. “If you see, barring Harbhajan Singh, a great spinner, there aren’t many big names in the Punjab line-up,” Nadeem, the most successful spinner this season, said. “And even our squad has three-four players who have experienced the big stage by being part of the IPL, so that shouldn’t be a big factor.”In fact, barring the experience of Harbhajan, both the line-ups are full of youngsters. As a result, the team that shows nerves of steel over the next five days will proceed to the next stage. However, Punjab have the edge when it comes to making requisite adjustments from four-day games to five-day matches. “Hardly any of us have played a five-day game, but we are up for it,” Nadeem admits. With the Keenan pitch appearing dry, it won’t be a surprise if the match doesn’t last five days.While Jharkhand qualified for the knockouts with an outright victory against Group C table-toppers Services on the New Year’s Day, Punjab seemed to have lost the fizz towards the end of the league stage. However, a fortnight’s break seems to have done Punjab a world of good. “When you play eight consecutive matches with just three days in between, that too with all the travelling, the players were bound to be jaded towards the end of the league stage. So the last two weeks have helped them recover are we are ready to roll again,” Punjab coach-cum-manager Arun Sharma said.The fact that Punjab were the first team to seal a spot in the quarters – with three matches remaining, shows the kind of form they have been in. And with most of their matches producing outright results, don’t expect a dull game at the Keenan over the next five days.

In the spotlight

Despite being the preferred home venue for the last three decades, Jharkhand haven’t enjoyed the Keenan experience this season. While they lost to Assam here in November, in the next round, they saw Goa hanging on for a hard-fought draw after being made to follow on.The two men who will hold the key for Jharkhand’s fortunes are captain Nadeem and left-handed batsman Saurabh Tiwary. While Nadeem will be competing with Punjab’s new-ball bowler Sandeep Sharma in the race for the highest wicket-taker of the season, Tiwary will be hoping to anchor their innings as he has done for a better part of the season. With Ishank Jaggi also coming good from time to time, Punjab bowlers would expect resistance.For the visitors, Harbhajan Singh will be gunning to make his mark by picking a big match-haul, something that he has failed to do thus far. Jiwanjot Singh, the opener who has stolen the limelight in his debut season, will be keen to regain the momentum that he seemed to have lost towards the end of the league stage.

Squads

Jharkhand: Shahbaz Nadeem (capt), Akash Verma, Saurabh Tiwary, Ishank Jaggi, Rameez Nemat, Shiv Gautam (wk), Ajatshatru Singh, Samar Quadri, SS Rao, Ajay Yadav, Manish Vardhan, Ashish Kumar, Sunny Gupta, Kumar Deobrat, Jaskaran Singh.Punjab: Jiwanjot Singh, Ravi Inder Singh, Taruwar Kohli, Mandeep Singh, Uday Kaul (wk), Gurkeerat Singh, Amitoze Singh, Harbhajan Singh (capt), Siddharth Kaul, Manpreet Gony, Sarabjit Ladda, Bipul Sharma, Karan Goel, Rajwinder Singh, Sandeep Sharma.

Stats and trivia

• This would be the first time Punjab and Jharkhand play each other, though Punjab have played Bihar twice. This would be Jharkhand’s first quarter-final appearance since 2001 when they lost to Haryana.
• Sandeep Sharma, the Punjab seamer, and Jharkhand left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem are close behind Ishwar Pandey’s season-haul of 48 wickets. While Sharma has 41 wickets this season, Nadeem has 40.
  

  Quotes

  “At the start of the season, our team goal was to go one step further than last year’s performance. Not that we have achieved it, we have revised the goal to go one step further than the quarter-finals. Let’s hope we can achieve that too.””The form over the last two games doesn’t bother us. What matters the most is how we turn up tomorrow.”


تحدث العامري فاروق نائب رئيس مجلس إدارة النادي الأهلي، عن قرعة دور الـ 8 لبطولة دوري أبطال أفريقيا، مشيرًا إلى أن غرامة كهربا ليس قرار منفرد.

الأهلي تأهل للدور الثمانية من دوري أبطال أفريقيا، بعدما فاز على الهلال السوداني، بثلاثية نظيفة، وستقام القرعة غدًا الأربعاء.

وقال العامري فاروق في تصريحات إذاعية عبر أثير راديو “الشباب والرياضة”: “الذي يريد حصد البطولة سيلعب ويواجه، والثلاث فرق سوء الوداد أو الرجاء أو الترجي تقيلة، والأهلي بعبع لجميع الفرق، وخبرات الأهلي مع عودة الجماهير أمور تقلق أي فريق”.

وتابع: “وفريقين من المغرب، وفريق من تونس، فمن الممكن أن تتجه الحسبة بأننا سنذهب للمغرب، لو تخطينا المباراة القادمة”.

وعن غرامة كهربا قال: “قرار تسديد الغرامة ليس منفرد، ونحن ندرس ونبذل مجهود، وكهربا لاعب مميز ومؤثر مع الأهلي، وهو يركز في الفترة الأخيرة و ان شاء الله يستمر فى التألق مع الفريق”.

وعن عقوبة أحمد عبد القادر قال: “هناك عقوبة يتم الإعلان عنها بهدف، وهناك عقوبات آخرى لن تعلن، والنادي الأهلي كبير، وأنت تبني شخصية لنفسك اتخذ نموذج مثل الخطيب، فهو كان لاعب وعرف كيف يدير اسمه ولم يخرج منه أي شئ غير صحيح، واليوم هو رئيس النادي الأهلي”.

وبسؤاله هل هناك ارتياح داخل مجلس الإدارة مع كولر المدير الفني قال: “نحن نسير بشكل جيد، ومباراة صن داونز كنا نلعب بهدف الفوز، ولكن خسارنا المباراة وبعدها فوزنا على القطن الكاميروني، والهلال وحققنا في مباراتين 7 أهداف، وحسمنا التأهل وهذا معناه أن الفريق قوامه قوي”.

وتطرق للحديث عن موسيماني مدرب الأهلي السابق قائلا: “هناك بعض السلبيات له كمدرب، ولكن في المُجمل، فهو مدرب متميز ونجح فى مهمته و تحقيق البطولات رغم خسارة بطولة الدورى الممتاز موسمين متتاليين”.

وتطرق للحديث عن محمود الخطيب رئيس النادي قائلا: “سأظل داعم للكابتن محمود الخطيب، ولا يوجد خلفات سابقة وحالية بين أعضاء مجلس الإدارة و الجميع متقهم هذا الامر داخل غرفة الاجتماعات”.

طالع أيضًا.. العامري فاروق: كل ما حدث من الهلال موثق.. والأهلي سيرد قريباً

وأكمل: “محمود الخطيب دكتاتور فى حب الأهلى ودائم الاستماع للاعضاء، وأخذ القرار يأتى بعض المناقشات القوية، وحسام غالى نموذج مميز فى الإدارة خارج التميز فى الملعب أيضًا”.

وعن تكلفة فرع النادي الجديد قال: “تكلفة فرع النادى الاهلى  بالتجمع الخامس مليار و 600 مليون جنية، وهناك ضغوط ماليه كبيرة، بسبب كثرة المصاريف، حيث لابد من دفع المرتبات والتعاقدات بشكل منتظم و لا يوجد شخص لديه مستحقات متأخرة”.

The ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit met with actress Nupur Mehta in connection with a report in March that said that the illegal booking mafia had hired an unidentified Indian actress to “honey trap” cricketers

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jun-2012The ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit met with actress Nupur Mehta in connection with a report in March that said that the illegal booking mafia had hired an unidentified Indian actress to “honey trap” cricketers into match-fixing and spot-fixing. Mehta, whose unidentified photograph was used in the story, met with the ACSU’s Alan Peacock at a Mumbai hotel and later told the that she had been “given a clean chit”.The ICC would not comment on the meeting because it had a “no comment policy on the ACSU, which works independently”.The report was written by Mazher Mahmood, the undercover reporter behind the sting operation into spot-fixing. The report did not mention Mehta’s name but carried a pixellated photograph of an actress. The report said: “The ICC is aware of the activities of a Bollywood actress, suspected of attempting to subvert players.” A few hours after the story became public, Mehta stepped forward and identified the photograph as hers. She said while she had met a few cricketers, she did not have any links with bookies. Her lawyer said she would be suing the for Rs 10 crore ($1.78 million) for using her photograph without her permission.The quoted Mehta as saying, “They [the ACSU] are satisfied with the answers I have provided. I have many friends who are cricketers and with whom I socialise… I also know a lot of international cricketers.”It is learnt that the meeting – the exact date is not known but it is believed to have taken place over the weekend – between Mehta and Peacock was part of the ACSU’s routine practices of information-gathering whenever any individual’s name crops up. It was not to be confused with either an interrogation or an exercise in ensuring that Mehta cleared her name. Mehta was talked to by the ACSU because her name came up in the story.What the ACSU is unlikely to have accounted for, however, was her publicising her conversation with the ACSU. On Monday night, a television channel also carried blurred spycam images of the conversation between Mehta and Peacock.

Karachi Dolphins won what was essentially a must-win game for them against Lahore Eagles by five wickets, at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, to secure their spot in the semi-finals of the Faysal Bank Super Eight T-20 Cup. Karachi put Lahore in to bat and kept them to 148 for 8, as all of their bowlers shared the wickets around. Imran Farhat with 41 was the top-scorer for Lahore, and the innings was built around his two sizeable stands with Taufeeq Umar and then Azhar Ali. The Lahore bowlers made early inroads in the chase, before two rapid half-century stands among Khalid Latif, Asad Shafiq and Sheharyar Ghani put the team on course. Eventually Karachi got home with 11 balls to spare, despite a tidy spell from left-arm spinner Mustafa Iqbal, in which he took 3 for 26.Karachi will play Lahore Lions in the first semi-final on Saturday.Sialkot Stallions finished on top of Group B, ensuring a spot in the semis, with a convincing seven-wicket win against hosts Rawalpindi Rams. After Rawalpindi chose to bat, their batsmen struggled to build on starts and score at a rapid pace. Though four batsmen got into the 20s, Rawalpindi only managed to edge past 120 because of a last-over six from No. 10 Mohammad Nawaz. Left-arm spinner Raza Hasan was the most effective of the Sialkot bowlers, claiming 3 for 20 in his four. Chasing 122, Sialkot’s top three batsmen all but closed out the game with partnerships of 50 and 55 at almost ten an over. Imran Nazir ended up the top-scorer, hitting four sixes in his knock of 59 off 34 balls, as Sialkot powered to a win with all of 27 balls to spare.Sialkot will play Peshawar Panthers in the second semi-final on Saturday.

The main problem with Sri Lankan cricket at present is that the players are not playing as a unit, Nishantha Ranatunga, the newly elected secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), has said. Sri Lanka have struggled since reaching the 2011 World Cup final in April, losing Test and ODI series against Australia and Pakistan, and went nearly 18 months without winning a Test until their defeat of South Africa in Durban last month.”The body language and the performance shows they are not playing as a team,” Ranatunga told ESPNcricinfo. “It is an important issue for the board to address.”The win in the Boxing Day Test at Kingsmead, Sri Lanka’s first ever in South Africa, represented a big turnaround in fortunes, and Ranatunga acknowledged the team had played well, with everybody contributing. He believed they have the talent to be consistently competitive but “they need to make sure they play for the country and not for individual performances.”Ranatunga’s comments follow those made by the Sri Lankan Sports Minister, who said in Parliament in December that disunity and miscommunication were causing the losing streak. “At this moment, senior players stated that there’s a communication gap between the captain and the main coach,” Mahindananda Aluthgamage said, according to the . “It was also highlighted that there was a communication gap between the main coach and the other coaches, that there was no proper understanding between the senior players and the new comers, and that the captain does not get the fullest support from the senior players.”SLC held elections for the first time in seven years on January 3, with Ranatunga standing for secretary as an independent candidate. He said his priorities will be to make sure the team performs well and that “proper selections are done” for all Sri Lanka teams. He also plans to focus on the Under-19 World Cup because Sri Lanka needs to find “two or three talented players for the future”, as well as on organising the ICC World Twenty20, which will be held in the country later this year.Ranatunga was also the interim committee secretary from 2009 to 2011. That committee increased the number of contracted players from 26 to 100, a move he expects will pay big dividends for Sri Lanka. “Out of these [additional] 74 players, 12 have already played for Sri Lanka,” Ranatunga said. “You don’t expect the players to work from 9 to 5 and then come and train and get into the national side. You need to make them professional cricketers. Then only the competitive levels of cricket will go up.”It is for the same reason that Ranatunga supports the implementation of a strong provincial cricket structure. Under the current system, the club cricket season is the primary season, while provincial cricket (Sri Lanka has nine provinces) is played whenever a gap can be found in the calendar. Colombo dominates the existing system because it has the infrastructure and is where most of the big cricket clubs are located. Players from further afield must therefore move to Colombo in order to pursue their cricketing careers, which is not always a possibility.”We have found a lot of cricketers but we would have missed quite a few as well,” Ranatunga said. “So it is the duty of the board to make sure that you give equal opportunity to outstation cricketers and have a system to bring them into the proper streamline. I am a firm believer of provincial cricket because the talent is there.”However, Ranatunga cautioned that it will take three or four years to put such a system in place and that the existing club structure should not be relegated to second-class status. “I don’t think we should degrade club cricket because the infrastructure is already there. But you need to play a tournament where 70 of your best cricketers compete and get themselves selected to the national level rather than 150 players playing and getting into the national side.”11:45 GMT, Jan 5: The January 5 entry said Sri Lanka has seven provinces. This has been corrected

أكد روجيرو ميكالي المدير الفني لمنتخب مصر الأولمبي على أهمية الاستفادة من مباراة الجابون الودية استعدادًا للمباريات الرسمية فيما بعد.

ويستعد منتخب مصر الأولمبي لمواجهة الجابون وديًا مساء غدٍ الجمعة، استعدادًا لخوض غمار منافسات التصفيات كأس أمم إفريقيا والمؤهلة بدورها إلى أولمبياد باريس.

وقال ميكالي في تصريحات صحفية قبل انطلاق المران الختامي: “نريد تحقيق الفوز على الجابون، ولكن نرغب في الوقوف على النقاط الهامة والاستمرار في العمل وتقديم وجوه جديدة للمنتخب، واختيار الأفضل”.

وأضاف المدرب البرازيلي: “أتمنى أن نقدم مباراة جيدة أمام الجابون”.

روي فيتوريا يحضر ودية منتخب مصر الأولمبي أمام الجابون

وتابع: “منذ تواصلنا مع اللاعبين والتجمع معهم، نسعى بقدر الإمكان أن نضع شكلًا محددًا للمنتخب، سواء دفاعيًا أو هجوميًا، ونحاول زرع الشراسة الهجومية والدفاعية والجدية”.

وأردف: “أوقات التجمع تكون بسيطة لكن الاستجابة والطموح والرغبة شديدة جدًا، هدفنا الكبير الوصول إلى أولمبياد باريس، وإحدى النقاط الهامة هي أن اللاعبين لا يشتركون مع أنديتهم وآخرون يشاركون”.

واستكمل: “أحاول عمل توازن من خلال التدريبات، وأتمنى أن نجتمع أكثر وأكثر، واللاعبون الذين لا يشاركون مع أنديتهم يتدربون هنا كأنهم أساسيين”.

وواصل: “من ناحيتي متأكد ومتفهم أن كل مدرب يحتاج اللاعب للفوز، ولكني أنظر إلى تقديم لاعبين ذو قيمة لمستقبل مصر”.

وأكد: “تابعت مباريات الدوري في الفترة الماضية وأتمنى مشاركة الشباب لأنهم مستقبل الكرة المصرية ومن المهم تجهيز اللاعبين بعد المنتخب الأولمبي للفريق الأول”.

وأشاد ميكالي بمعسكر المغرب الماضي، قائلًا: “كان ممتازًا جدًا وواجهنا فريقًا قويًا على ملعبه، والمعسكر منحنا انطباعًا عن الأجواء بشكل عام، مع انطباع جيد عن اللاعبين وجديتهم”.

واستكمل: “أوجه الشكر للأندية لتركهم اللاعبين، قميص المنتخب ثقيل ومهم أن يفهم ذلك شبابنا، ويجب على من ينضم أن يتمسك بالمنتخب لكي يكون مستعدًا للحظة الحاسمة”.

ميكالي يصدر قرارًا جديدًا بشأن مران منتخب مصر الأولمبي

واختتم: “نعلم منتخب زامبيا جيدًا، أحد الأشخاص يحضر لنا مبارياتهم وندرسها”.

يلتقى منتخب مصر الأولمبى، مع زامبيا في الدور الثالث بالتصفيات المؤهلة لأمم إفريقيا تحت 23 سنة.

Kris Srikkanth, India’s chief selector, has blamed the collective batting failure for series defeat in England, and said the loss had nothing to do with fatigue or poor preparation.”If you see the FTP, all countries are playing cricket 365 days a year whether England or Australia,” Srikkanth said. “It is not the Indians only. The fact is that cricket is being played the whole year in whatever format – Test, ODI or Twenty20. So I don’t think that it is the fatigue factor for the performance in England.”However in the last 12 months India have played more Tests than any other team and more one-day games than anyone except Pakistan. In addition to 14 Tests and 29 ODIs over the past year, India’s players also took part in the gruelling IPL, which began within a week of the World Cup final.In the first three Tests this series, India have not managed to post a total in excess of 300, and Rahul Dravid is the only batsman to have averaged more than 40. Srikkanth said the batting had failed to perform as a unit. “The batting did not click for us. In the Indian side, if batting clicks everything clicks. We also did not do well in bowling and fielding. England bowling attack is ideally suited for the conditions.”It is a fact that our top five batsmen have not clicked in the series so far. But the same bunch of cricketers have been doing well during the last couple of years. The same combination had defeated South Africa in South Africa. It our bad luck that in this particular tour nothing has clicked for us.”India had England struggling at 124 for 8 in the first innings at Trent Bridge, but a ninth-wicket 74-run partnership between Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann played a crucial role in England getting to 221. Srikkanth said India’s failure to capitalise on the opportunity was one of the key turning points in the series. “It is a question of mental toughness and our cricketers are mentally very tough … [but] at 124 for 8, if you look at it psychologically … psychologically there we lost the battle,” he told .The BCCI has been criticised by former cricketers for its failure to prioritise Test cricket, but Srikkanth defended the Indian board. “Let us not indulge in the blame game – on the players or the administrators or the BCCI. Nobody is to be blamed and it’s not the time for that. It is just that we are going through a bad phase.”England have replaced India at the top of the Test rankings, but while Srikkanth was confident India would be able to bounce back, he said it was time to rebuild the team. “We have to learn from the series in England, look into what went wrong. We also have to identify and support new talent when the time comes,” he said.”We all have to put our heads together and plan for the future,” Srikkanth told the . “We have to start the process all over again without complaining. We have to try our various combinations to get the best team like we did before the World Cup. We even dropped Yuvraj Singh, who came back strongly into the ODI team and left a huge impact on the tournament. We want to do similar things now.”

They may have dragged the match into a fourth day, but Somerset will surely stumble to their fourth defeat of a bitterly disappointing first half of the Championship season early on the final morning. With nine second-innings wickets down, they lead Warwi

George Dobell at Edgbaston22-Jun-2011
Scorecard
They may have dragged the match into a fourth day, but Somerset will surely stumble to their fourth defeat of a bitterly disappointing first half of the Championship season early on the final morning. With nine second-innings wickets down, they lead Warwickshire by just five runs. More was expected of a team that started the year with high hopes of a first Championship title.It doesn’t take too much analysis to work out Somerset’s faults. They have a tail longer than a diplodocus and they’re overly reliant on Marcus Trescothick. Zander de Bruyn, who they allowed to go to Surrey over the winter, has been sorely missed. Their bowling, with Geemal Hussain struggling to make the step-up to the top division and Charl Willoughby beginning to show signs of wear, has also lacked bite. It may yet be matters at the wrong end of the table that occupy them come September.Here their middle-order was blown away by some well-directed pace bowling from Boyd Rankin and, in particular, the distinctly sharp Rikki Clarke. At one stage Clarke took three wickets in 25 balls. On a pitch that remains slow, flat and blameless, that’s a fine effort.Only Trescothick and Nick Compton showed any meaningful resistance. No-one else scored more than 15.There’s little that is entertaining about Compton. He’s so far batted for just six-minutes short of five hours in this innings and, at one stage, was scoreless for 33 minutes. Had he been sprayed silver, passers-by may have thrown money at him.But Somerset could do with a few more batsmen of his ilk. For, until the admirable Steve Kirby joined him in a ninth-wicket stand that thwarted Warwickshire for 53 minutes, there was remarkably little resistance from a middle-order of whom more is expected.James Hildreth, whose hopes of forcing his way into the England side are receding by the week, was trapped in front by one that nipped back, before Lewis Gregory’s middle stump was sent cartwheeling by a perfect yorker and Peter Trego played-on as he was hurried by Clarke’s extra pace. Geemal Hussain, again beaten for pace, jabbed his bat down on a full ball and squirted a catch to leg gully before Murali Kartik attempted the most hideous sweep shot imaginable and departed lbw. Earlier Arul Suppiah clipped obligingly to square leg.Maybe Somerset can consider themselves a little unfortunate. While Trescothick was at the crease, a draw looked well within their grasp. There was even some talk of a challenging fourth-innings run chase.So to lose him in such unusual fashion was wretched luck. Middling a ferocious slog-sweep, Trescothick looked on in dismay as the ball thumped into Ian Westwood – hardly the largest of obstacles – at short-leg and somehow lodged itself in the fielder’s clothes. While both Westwood and Trescothick were left in pain, the smile was far quicker to return to the face of the Warwickshire man. Trescothick was also dismissed in unfortunate circumstances in the first innings; caught down the leg side as he attempted to glance.But Somerset can’t rely on their captain to save them every time. The likes of Hildreth – who has yet to score a century this season – also need to contribute far more.It was a particularly grim day for Craig Kieswetter. England’s newly recalled keeper departs with on international duty having just suffered the first ‘pair’ of his first-class career. His second innings dismissal, playing across a straight one from his new England colleague, Chris Woakes, meant Kieswetter had faced just nine balls in the match. Incidentally, Kieswetter and Woakes’ places on the final day of this game will be taken by Jos Buttler and Keith Barker respectively, though it’s hard to see either man making much of an impact.Earlier Warwickshire extended their first innings total to 448. It’s their highest score at Edgbaston this season and the highest score they’ve managed anywhere in their first innings since they last played Somerset. When they wrap-up victory on the final day, it will be the first time they’ve achieved home and away victories over Somerset in 50 years. While it might be pushing it to suggest that their fifth Championship victory of the season will revive their title hopes, it should, at least, ensure they are not looking over their shoulders in the final weeks of the season.Meanwhile Warwickshire finalised the signing of West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul as overseas player for the second half of the season. He’ll join them from mid-July.