Hain & Latham steer Bears to draw with Somerset

Warwickshire batter Sam Hain's half-century was the 58th of his career

Rothesay County Championship Division One, Edgbaston (day four)

Somerset 498 & 229-8 dec: Rew 61; Rocchiccioli 5-67

Warwickshire 351 & 161-4: Hain 68*, Latham 52

Warwickshire (11 pts) drew with Somerset (14 pts)

Match scorecard

Warwickshire and Somerset harvested a predictable County Championship draw as a forgettable match finally petered out on the final day at Edgbaston.

Set a notional victory target of 377 in 69 overs, Warwickshire plodded to 161-4 as Tom Latham (52 from 103 balls) and Sam Hain (68 not out from 157) escorted their team to safety and the match to a stalemate.

Somerset had extended their second innings in the morning to 229-8 but not as quickly as they hoped as Australian off-spinner Corey Rocchoccioli took 5-67 on debut.

It had always appeared that a bland pitch would blunt the victory aspirations of either side and so it proved.

Both shored up their positions in the middle of Division One with a solid points haul from a match which offered less than vivid entertainment.

The deployment of two short mid-wickets and two short extras for Latham off Migael Pretorius was about as exciting as it got for the slumbering Edgbaston faithful.

Somerset resumed on the final morning on 116-3, 283 ahead overall, and started purposefully.

James Rew completed a 66-ball half-century but two wickets for Rocchoccioli slowed the momentum and changed the plan.

The spinner unfurled a lovely turning delivery which Rew, on 61, edged to wicketkeeper Kai Smith and Tom Banton then missed a sweep and was lbw.

Bowling coach Steve Kirby had suggested after day three that Somerset would need 80 overs to try to bowl Warwickshire out, but that point arrived with the lead only 317.

Tom Abell and Archie Vaughan batted watchfully to prevent a collapse then expanded to add 65 in 14 overs before Abell charged and missed at Rocchoccioli.

Pretorious had his off-stump removed by Ethan Bamber and Rocchoccioli's five-for was complete when Craig Overton missed a reverse sweep and was lbw, triggering lunch and the declaration.

To challenge the target - 377 in two sessions - Warwickshire needed a strong platform but they lost soon both openers. Alex Davies fell to the fourth ball, lbw to Matt Henry and Rob Yates left a gap between bat and pad and Jack Leach, who opened the bowling, turned the ball through it.

That scuppered any chance of a Warwickshire win, but Somerset's hopes were ground away over the next two hours by Latham and Hain, who declined to pursue a target of 276 from 34 overs after tea.

Latham drove a return catch to Overton and Jacob Bethell top-edged a pull at Pretorius but the implacable Hain reached 50 for the 58th time in first-class cricket to see the job through in a sparsely-populated stadium as far-removed as can be from the passionate cauldron it will be when England meet India next week.

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Warwickshire head coach Ian Westwood:

"We are pleased with the draw. It was quite a big toss to lose and they piled on quite a big score but we showed a lot of character to fight back from that.

"It is not what we want to do, be holding out for draws, we want to be pushing to win games, but I am proud of the effort from the guys over the last four days. Games have been coming thick and fast and there are a few tired bodies in the dressing room.

"Corey did very well on his debut. We felt that we needed some support during this period. He has had a great couple of years in the Sheffield Shield and gets a really nice shape on the ball."

Somerset captain Craig Overton:

"We knew it was going to be tricky to force victory. We wanted a few more runs in the first innings - after a good start we went a little bit nowhere on day two morning. We were nearly able to enforce the follow on but, thinking about it now, if we had enforced the follow on we might have broken a few bowlers.

"We knew it was unlikely we would bowl them out in 70 overs but we gave it everything. When they were 16-2 we had a sniff but then Tom Latham and Hainy played well.

"It was a great team performance, though. Everyone has contributed with the opening batters giving us a great start and Lammers [Tom Lammonby] backed them up by making it back-to-back hundreds for him. "