Warwickshire County Cricket Club in 2005

Warwickshire County Cricket Club start 2005 as defending County Champions and 11-4 favourites to retain their title. They play their totesport League cricket in Division Two. Warwickshire won the title in 2004 through their batting, and they have further enhanced it with the addition of Alex Loudon.

In the traditional Champion County v MCC match that kicks off the season, Warwickshire fared well, but ultimately lost to what essentially was an England A squad. However, when the Championship started, they immediately imposed their authority by thrashing Division One newcomers Glamorgan by an innings. Their first Sunday League game, against Somerset was abandoned as a draw because of rain.

In the second Championship game, Warwickshire were outplayed by Kent, who should have won. But determination saw Warwickshire through to the draw. The Bears were 9 wickets down when time was called. Then Ian Bell and Ashley Giles helped trounce Middlesex in the Championship. The following day they beat the Spitfires by 19 runs. On 3 and 4 May they beat Holland in the first round of the C&G Trophy.

They then lost to Sussex in first the totesport League and then the Championship. On 17 May they beat Leicestershire at home to progress to the Quarter-Finals of the C&G Trophy. Three days later they beat Derbyshire easily in the one-day league. They then beat Cambridge UCCE by 18 runs in an MCC University match, before trouncing title rivals Hampshire by ten wickets at home inside two days.

The first game of June saw a comfortable 4-day draw away to Surrey, before a 49-run win against the same opposition kept them in the promotion fight in the National League Division Two. Their fine first-class form continued, as they won their third County Championship match in style at Gloucestershire, but they were thumped by Kent in the next game, hampered by a groin injury to Heath Streak. That injury could have been a cause of their seven-wicket defeat at home to Leicestershire.

Warwickshire's long batting line-up came to surprisingly little use in the Twenty20 Cup, as they lost their first two matches, and their first win came against hapless Glamorgan. After six games, they had only scraped five points, and endured two one-run losses to Worcestershire. They managed to get through to the quarter-finals, however, thanks to big wins over Somerset and Northamptonshire. They followed that up with two wins in the National League, over Derbyshire and Durham, and also made it to the C&G Trophy semi-final with a five-wicket victory of Kent. So, going into the Twenty20 game with Surrey, they were on a five-game win streak, and after the scores were tied under the Duckworth-Lewis method the teams had to face off in a bowl-off. Warwickshire lost 3-4 to bow out of the tournament.

Their poor form was continued in the County Championship, where they lost in three days - with only four balls delivered on the third day - against Nottinghamshire. A win over Yorkshire meant that they kept their vital third place in Division 2 in the National League, though, and they advanced to second after defeating Kent. A crucial, and close, three-wicket win against Middlesex in the Championship followed, as Warwickshire jumped up to fifth place in the Championship, half a point ahead of Surrey in the third relegation spot, and they followed that up with a big ten-wicket win over whipping boys Glamorgan. A loss to Nottinghamshire, however, sent them right back into the mire. Some relief came in the C&G Trophy, when Warwickshire thumped Lancashire to progress to the final. Rain cancelled the National League match with Leicestershire, meaning that Warwickshire still trailed the promotion places by two points, and their loss to Sussex the following day did not help. However, they got revenge over Sussex by beating them in the County Championship later on in the week, but the next week saw two losses to Hampshire - first in the Championship and then in the C&G Trophy final.

The one-day losses continued, as the Bears fell to Somerset in the National League on the first Sunday in September, but they recovered with a Championship draw and a League win over Surrey. The latter left them with an outside chance of League promotion, trailing Derbyshire in third place by four points but with two games in hand, but they went up into third place with a win in Scotland, and got a four-point lead and a vastly superior net run rate to the fourth-place with a 102-run win over Yorkshire. Their Championship season ended in fourth place after a 181-run win over Gloucestershire, and despite losing their last National League match of the season to Durham Dynamos, Warwickshire were promoted, and will play in Division One of both the Championship and League in 2006.

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