Warwickshire 272 for 4 dec (Yates 104, Sibley 54, Holland 3-85) and 62 for 2 (Sibley 29*, Davies 16*) lead Hampshire 311 (Vince 98, Barker 76, Norwell 4-38) by 23 runs

Warwickshire are still alive. With a day to go in the 2022 season, the defending County Champions are hanging on to their Division One status. Though it may be by a thread, it is at least *their* thread.

Because at various points on Wednesday, they were at the mercy of two counties – one in the away dressing room at Headingley, the other along the corridor at Edgbaston. They needed Gloucestershire to beat Yorkshire to leave the latter just 15 points ahead, then work out how they could possibly coax Hampshire into putting the 16 points for a win on the table when it looked likely the south-coasters would reach 350 to achieve the five points that would guarantee them second-spot and the extra prize money that brings.

Gloucestershire did their bit – just – by which point Hampshire had fallen short, dismissed for 311. At that point, a third county – Lancashire, who defeated Surrey by an innings at Emirates Old Trafford to take the runners-up spot – came into the picture. Now, Hampshire must be a bit more agreeable to whatever they are set, trailing as they do by 23 runs having established a lead of 39 after the first innings, lest they settle for the lowest step on the podium having been the only other contenders for highest. Warwickshire, two down, have some semblance of control, which is a hell of a lot more than they should have expected when this round began.

That characteristic was particularly evident in a knock of 98 that was as engaging as it was ambivalent to Warwickshire’s need to press fast forward. Barring his knock, which inspired 138 runs from the fall of the fifth wicket to the seventh, Warwickshire’s seamers summoned an immense amount of fight, ensuring the gamble to declare the first innings on 272 for 4, with just two batting points, has already proven the right course of action.

In between those dismissals came news of Yorkshire being set 241 for safety. And when Norwell squared up Ben Brown for another low catch in the cordon – Bethell at third – there was the prospect of a healthy lead, vindicating their first-innings declaration. Then came the start of Vince’s resistance.

His first ally was Aneurin Donald, who scored 32 of the 36 he contributed to a stand of 75 entirely in fours as he matched his skipper’s positivity. Within 11.1 overs, they had shifted the balance enough for Rhodes to protect the shorter side boundary in front of the family stand. Not that it mattered when Vince nailed a whipped pull shot off Brookes high over the fielder set back to move to a seventh fifty-plus score of the season in just 50 balls.

Brookes did not take the blow to heart, though did ensure his line was not as straight which paid dividends when Donald went for one and offered a tough chance at backward point, well taken by Dan Mousley.

That brought out Barker, who perhaps at any other time might have been quietly willing Warwickshire on given the decade he spent at the club. Instead, the man who helped the Bears to their 2012 Championship title set about in an orderly fashion to slowly pull the game out of his former side’s grasp. He also inflicted a bit of damage on his old mate Oliver Hannon-Dalby with a full-blooded slap down the ground. Technically it was a caught and bowled chance – the left-hander was on 32 – but unless the ball had lodged deep into Hannon-Dalby’s flesh (of which there is very little), it wasn’t getting caught.

Vince, by now, had moved down a couple of gears. The last of his 10 boundaries took him to 82 – and Hampshire beyond 200 – before taking 46 deliveries to move to 98. Then, with just a second three-figure score of the red-ball summer a short ball away, his former teammate Danny Briggs got one to clip his edge through to Davies.

At 230 for 7, still 32 behind, Barker took the initiative: his last 54 runs coming at better than a run-a-ball, thanks for eight further fours and a waltzing six down the ground off Rob Yates’ part-time orthodox. By the time he departed, miscuing Brookes to Bethell, who caught the top edge this time – albeit one with a much shorter hang time – a lead of 29 had been established that only extended by 10 by the time the two final wickets had been taken, giving Norwell 4 for 38 and a first of the match for Hannon-Dalby – the least he deserved for a probing 10 overs in which he had conceded just 29.

Warwickshire’s second innings had ticked over to 24 for no loss when Steve Patterson struck David Payne straight to backward point with 18 runs remaining. And though first-innings centurion Yates was unable to see out the evening – caught by Vince at first slip for Mohammad Abbas’s 50th Division One wicket this season – as well as nightwatcher Brookes, Sibley (29 not out) and Davies (16*) return on Thursday 23 ahead, full of hope for a great escape. Even in the final stretch, there is enough road for Warwickshire to turn their season around.