Date-stamped : 08 Jul94 - 18:26
CC: Lancashire v Warwickshire, Edgbaston, 30 Jun - 4 Jul 94   

====> Day 4, 4 Jul 94
Twose learns from Lara's brilliance

EDGBASTON (final day of four):  Warwickshire  (24pts)  beat  Lan-
cashire (6pts) by six wickets

It did not take Warwickshire long to get over the  disappointment
of  losing  their  unbeaten record. Less than 24 hours after col-
lapsing to an ignominious defeat against Lancashire  in  the  Axa
Equity  & Law League, they made their task of scoring 180 runs to
beat their conquerors and move into a challenging position in the
Britannic  Assurance county championship look much easier than it
actually was.

An ideal pitch for four-day cricket, hard and fast at  the  start
but turning increasingly as the match wore on, promised an intri-
guing final day when Warwickshire  resumed  on  32  without  loss
against the pace of Wasim Akram, who was looking to sign off with
something special before joining Pakistan's tour  of  Sri  Lanka,
and the off spin of Mike Watkinson.

As it turned out, the biggest  threat  to  Warwickshire  was  the
weather.   Only  the ''Brumbrella'' kept the delay in the morning
down to 15 minutes following heavy rain and another shower around
lunchtime  injected  so  much  urgency  into the batting that the
match was won 13 overs later.

For that, Warwickshire had to thank Roger Twose, whose return  to
form  this  season  seems to be one of the spin-offs from the ac-
quisition of Brian Lara.  Twose had such a lean  time  last  year
that  he  scored only 184 runs in 16 innings, but he has drawn so
much inspiration from batting with the West Indian genius that he
is already approaching his 1,000 this time with an average in the
sixties.

Suffice to say that Lara, who is expected to return to  the  side
for  the NatWest Trophy match at Leicester tomorrow after a five-
day rest, could not have batted more positively  than  Twose  did
yesterday  in  taking  Warwickshire  to within nine runs of their
target.

If anything, the ball turned and bounced too much  for  Watkinson
and,  with  Akram also having one of his more frustrating spells,
Twose and Andy Moles were able to  settle  Warwickshire's  nerves
with an opening partnership of 75.

Moles was then caught behind off a flyer from Glen  Chapple,  but
Dominic Ostler and Trevor Penney, who had been awarded his county
cap the day before, gave Twose such pugnacious support  that  the
last 72 runs came in only 12 overs.

It would have been entirely fitting if Twose, whose 90  contained
two  sixes  and  11  fours, had made the winning runs, but he was
bowled by Watkinson looking for the six and four which would have
given him a century as well.

He had still scored 128 runs in the game, making him one of  four
contenders for the man-of-the-match award, along with Penney, who
hit a century in Warwickshire's first innings, John Crawley,  who
made  141 and 54, and the recipient, the off spinner, Neil Smith,
whose seven for 42 had proved decisive.

(Extracted from Pat Gibson's article in The Times)
<END> Contributed by Vicky (VIGNESWA@*umass.edu)