Westwood happy as Warwickshire hit the Championship summit thanks to Notts draw
Warwickshire have climbed to the top of the Rothesay County Championship.
The Bears hit the summit on Monday as they played out a battling draw against reigning champions Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.
Skipper Ed Barnard hit a brilliant 165 and Chris Woakes 65 as Warwickshire scored 459 all out in their first innings, with Michael Booth then bagging four for 71 as Notts were bowled out for 279.
The Bears enforced the follow on, but Notts dug deep to battle their way to 537 for seven to secure the draw, with centuries for Haseeb Hameed and Kyle Verreynne, who both hit 115, and 93 from England man Ben Duckett.
The strong points haul from the stalemate was enough to see Warwickshire go above Somerset in the table by a solitary point, although they have played a game more than the west country outfit.
Warwickshire head coach Ian Westwood told edgbaston.com: “It’s nice to look at the table and see that we’re top.
“We’ve obviously played a game more than some teams, but I think across the four weeks as a whole, we’ve had some tough fixtures against some really good teams.
“We’ve played some good cricket and we’ve been in a position to win all of those games which shows we’re doing a lot right.
“I’m really pleased with the way the group is tracking and the effort everyone is putting in and we’re getting better all the time.”
Despite being unable to force the win against Notts, Westwood felt his side did a lot right.
“Coming to the home of the champions, losing the toss and being put in, I think we can be happy with our week’s work,” he added.
“There is some disappointment that we couldn’t push for a win, but we tried everything we could.
"We were brave to make them follow on. We felt that gave us the best chance in terms of time left in the game to bowl them out.
“We knew it was going to be tough but we put in loads of effort, played some good cricket and we go away fairly happy.”
Warwickshire are without a game this weekend, and return to Championship action on May 8 when they entertain Yorkshire.