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Page last updated at 11:51 GMT, Friday, 21 May 2010 12:51 UK

Warwickshire batting has to improve - Ian Westwood

Ian Westwood
Westwood's Bears will be without two Test players at Taunton next week

Warwickshire captain Ian Westwood has called for an improved effort from his batting line-up after a third Championship defeat of the season.

The Bears fell by 65 runs to Lancashire at Edgbaston after a brave attempt to chase down an improbable target of 441.

"A first innings of 113 is not enough runs on any pitch under any circumstances," Westwood told BBC WM.

"I'm not sure we've adapted quickly enough, we seem to assess the pitch is had to bat on and then improve later."

On a number of occasions the county's top order has been bailed out by runs from the tail, most notably big scores from Neil Carter and Chris Woakes.

We've shown we can bowl teams out, we need to start posting the runs

Bears skipper Ian Westwood

It is a stark contrast to the large first innings total that the Bears were posting for much of the 2009 campaign.

"We need to go back to the way we were playing over the last couple of seasons with the bat," Westwood noted.

"We would grind out a big score then, and now we've shown we can bowl teams out, all we need to do is start posting the runs.

"We need to find a way to get to 400, and we haven't done that this year."

The Warwickshire skipper is not placing all of the blame for the Lancashire defeat on the batsmen however, with other aspects of the game also coming under scrutiny.

"When you fall short by 60 in the end you cast your mind back to the game and so many areas where we let ourselves down," he said.

"If we're honest we didn't bowl as well as we'd have liked on the first morning when conditions were in our favour."

The defeat leaves the Bears sixth in the County Championship, only five points above the relegation places.



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see also
Trott sees Bears to another win
14 May 10 |  Counties
First century boosts Trott
10 May 10 |  Warwickshire
Tahir sets up victory over Kent
07 May 10 |  Counties


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