WARWICKSHIRE CCC made a drawing start to the new County Championship season in a stalemate against Surrey.
The Bears bowled Surrey out for 328 in the first innings of the season despite a century from Ben Foakes (128) at Edgbaston.
Warwickshire responded with a commanding total of 544 all out as Dan Mousley (144) and Sam Hain (94) starred with the bat.
Surrey returned to the crease for their second innings and reached 447-4 at the end of day four as the game ended in a draw.
The Bears took 16 points from the fixture to sit second in the Division One table behind early leaders Essex.
Warwickshire head coach, Ian Westwood said: “It was a good match of good quality and, points-wise, 16 is as strong a haul from a draw as you can get, so from that point of view we are happy.
“There is a tinge of disappointment that we didn’t win, we probably had a couple of opportunities in the match, but credit to Surrey, they played really well.
“There are lots of reasons to be optimistic. When we reflect on the last four days, we will be very happy, but we always want to be better and we just missed a couple of little windows of opportunity where we cold have forced our position home.
“But it was great to see the batters all playing well at the start of the season, that settles everybody down, and it was a great hundred for Mous, not just the runs he scored but the way he scored them, very positively to get us those maximum batting points.
“The crowd reaction to his century said it all. Everybody can see how hard he tries and what he brings to the team and he is Warwickshire through and through so it was really nice for him to get that first century and hopefully that’s just the start of it.”
Warwickshire are next in action against Sussex with play to begin on Friday, April 10 at 11am at the County Ground.
