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After Essex resumed on 189-9, the stunned Warwickshire fans had to suffer possibly the most shambolic morning’s cricket ever seen at Edgbaston.
They watched in horrified silence as Shane Snater and last man Jamie Porter were allowed to add a further 43 runs in half an hour, helped by some almost comical fielding.
Snater added a further 24 to his overnight score of 33 before taking one yahoo too many and losing his middle stump to Craig Miles. And Porter, who has accumulated more first-class dismissals in his career than he has made runs, even managed a rare boundary, a square cut for four off Ed Barnard, as he ended on a season’s best seven not out.
Then, when the Bears batted, suddenly it was carnage – as they lost their first four wickets for just three runs.
Cook had Rob Yates lbw in his first over, then bowled the departing Durham-bound Will Rhodes in his next, Sam Hain edged Porter to second slip, and Cook struck again to remove Hamza Shaikh’s middle stump.
Porter then had Barnard caught behind and home skipper Alex Davies was trapped in front by Snater before the Bears finally got some respite to lunch on 52-6.
Danny Briggs (51) resisted along with Michael Burgess (28) in a stand of 71.
But once Briggs departed to Porter, he wrapped it up very quickly, getting the last three wickets too – Miles second ball, Burgess caught on the long-on boundary, and then limping last man Chris Rushworth, fourth ball, to complete a season’s best.
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