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Edgbaston: A feeling of boys against men spread through a sparse but sun-baked crowd on the second day at Edgbaston, as England's openers, Andrew Strauss and Ravi Bopara, managed more in their first-wicket stand of 109 that the entire Warwickshire XI were permitted to accumulate in 35.4 outclassed overs, as James Anderson, Andrew Flintoff and Monty Panesar claimed their remaining nine wickets in little more than a session.
As a pointer towards Cardiff it felt every bit as misleading as England's meandering first-innings performance had been, especially given the high-octane happenings down the road at Worcester. But as far as middle practices go, it was pretty much perfect.
Perfect, that is, except perhaps for Kevin Pietersen's distracted dismissal in the evening session, although the manner of his departure rather summed up the competitive edge of this contest.
Pietersen managed 6 from 11 balls, before producing a bored guide to second slip off Boyd Rankin to complete his second failure of the match.
Foregone conclusions and 48-yard boundaries aren't the best combination to whet his competitive juices.
So instead, with Strauss already gone for a healthy 61, it was left to Bopara to complete the half-century that he missed in the first innings, and for Paul Collingwood to put bat to ball on the ground where he saved his Test career with a gutsy century against South Africa 11 months ago.
Brief Score: England XI 290 for 8 dec and 185 for 2 (Bopara 88*, Collingwood 21*) lead Warwickshire 102 (Anderson 5-34) by 373 runs.
