WARWICKSHIRE and Yorkshire had to settle for a Specsavers County Championship draw at Edgbaston after a third successive day was lost to the weather.
The positive intentions from both camps came to nothing after the umpires decided, after an early lunch, that areas of the field were still too wet for play.
Yorkshire were keen to pursue a win that would have lifted them to third place in Division One while Warwickshire wanted to back up last week's result at Nottinghamshire with another victory. But the immense deluges of Monday night and Tuesday morning meant that the match was consigned to history as a draw with just the 64 overs from the first day to go into the record books.
Yorkshire had to settle for a final position of fifth place in Division One while Warwickshire, denied the chance to get any batting points from this match, slipped back to seventh, below Surrey who moved two points above them having taken full batting points against Nottinghamshire before the rain closed in at The Oval.
Yorkshire captain Steve Patterson said: “The goal and hope was that there was enough time left to set up a game today. The way the game’s gone so far, it would have led easily to do that. There might have been a couple of declarations whereby they chase a score after we got a few more runs, but once we knew we couldn’t start until three or four o’clock, it took too much time out of the day to enable that to happen”
“We came here wanting a response as a team, and the way we went about it with the bat on day one was exceptional. For Tom Kohler-Cadmore to move to the top of the order for the first time [this season] and finish 160 not out, what an achievement that is.
“We were in a really strong position in the game. But, unfortunately, like pretty much everywhere else in the country, the rain has dictated the course of the game."
Warwickshire captain Jeetan Patel said: "We didn't want to sit round for three days and not play. We thought there was an opportunity, if both parties came to an agreement, that we could really set up a game a fun day's cricket to end the season. I think both teams would have enjoyed that, but we can't control the weather.
"There has been so much rain and the groundstaff did a fantastic job to try and get conditions up to playing standard but the reality is it was just going to be too late to start play for us to get any sort of proper game in."
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