Umeed takes flight with debut century

Warwickshire 273 for 8 (Umeed 101, Chopra 71, Weighell 4-75) v DurhamScorecard

The last Warwickshire batsman to make a Championship hundred on debut was an extraordinary affair: Jeetan Patel, barely off the plane from New Zealand, coming in at No. 10 against Yorkshire and conjuring up something entirely unexpected.

Seven years on, Andrew Umeed matched that feat. This time the mood was quite different. By the time Umeed reached his hundred on a comparatively challenging surface, such was his composure, even allowing for the fact that his only previous first-class match had come for Scotland against Afghanistan, he had made it seem inevitable.

Just to get to the match was challenging enough. By the time that Warwickshire decided to give him his debut, omitting Ian Westwood who had made 15 runs in seven attempts, Umeed was in Carlisle on his way back to the family home in Glasgow. He completed the journey, flew back down, and his parents followed by car in time to watch his grand moment.

Umeed needed some fortune against Graham Onions with the new ball, edging wide of Ryan Pringle, at catchable height, at third slip and then badly dropped by Paul Collingwood on 19, but they were rare blemishes. As the pitch became stickier, he became stickier still, pressing on regardless after Varun Chopra, his partner in an opening stand of 121, had fallen lbw to James Weighell.

The only time he attempted something rash, with exhilaration at his hundred still coursing through his veins, he was dismissed three balls after that landmark had been achieved, pulling a short ball from Onions straight to midwicket. On the surface, it was not a wicket-taking ball, but Onions is a canny enough soul to have banged one in with an expectation of …

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