Bell shines on gloomy day

Warwickshire 189 for 3 (Bell 84*, Troughton 58*, Phillips 3-51) v Somerset
Scorecard

Ian Bell has already stated how much he wants his England place, but it was his bat that spoke most eloquently on the opening day of the Championship season as his fine, unbeaten 84 dominated the shortened first day's play of Warwickshire's match against Somerset at Taunton.

While most of the players still looked rusty after the winter's break, Bell was in prime form from the start. He came in after a brief opening stand of 13 when Tony Frost departed for 7, caught at the wicket while trying to withdraw his bat. Bell's first ball, from Ben Phillips, lifted sharply, but he handled it well and then drove the next confidently past mid-on for two.

While his partner Darren Maddy battled for 55 minutes to score his first five runs, Bell was keeping the score constantly on moving, playing most of his strokes with time to spare. Only the left-armer Charl Willoughby, who enjoyed no luck, made him play and miss once or twice.

Some of the bowling was not particularly testing, Mark Turner in particular had two very erratic spells, and even Phillips, who took all three wickets to fall before lunch fell away afterwards. But before the interval Bell was master of all he surveyed, especially with the cover drive. Both Phillips and Peter Trego were dispatched to the boundary twice in the same over with effortless strokes. He also pulled their short deliveries impressively, and reached his 50 just before the break off 84 balls.

By then he had also lost Maddy, whose dogged innings of 17 came to an abrupt end as a superb delivery from Phillips splayed his stumps, and then Jonathan Trott walked in front of the next ball to depart lbw without offering a shot. Jim Troughton saw off the hat-trick delivery and was to survive the day with 58 to his name, out of an unbroken partnership of 123.

Lunch did not seeme to agree with Bell, who lost his fluency in the fifty-odd minutes possible by the rain in the afternoon session, adding just eight to his score in the short session. By way of contrast, Troughton's touch improved leaps and bounds and when play resumed temporarily after tea he was quick out of the blocks and moved to his half-century off 102 balls.

Bell never quite regained his pre-lunch form, but he didn't throw his wicket away and finished the day within sight of a century. He did play an uppish shot for four that just evaded backward point when on 76, but otherwise the home side never really looked likely to remove him. There was a slightly bizarre ending to the day's play, as Omari Banks was unleashed to bowl for the first time and the umpires apparently decided after a single ball that the batsmen might be in physical danger if they had to face an off-spinner in gloomy light.

The day was Bell's, although Phillips, who admits to being inconsistent, will doubtless be pleased with his performance during the morning. The weather was fairly typical for this time of year: overcast with a slight mist and the light often not very good. But there were several hundred spectators for Taunton's first day of the new season, and they were probably quite entertained by the cricket on offer.