THE previous time Shane Warne played at Edgbaston, his team won the toss on a cloudy morning, asked the opposition to bat and watched as the decision backfired on them spectacularly.

That was Ricky Ponting’s infamous call before the second Test last summer, which changed the course of the Ashes series and led to newspaper reports that Warne and Ponting had a row about the decision. So when Warne lost the toss in similarly gloomy conditions yesterday and was invited to bat by Heath Streak, he could have been forgiven a wry smile.

The conditions may have been conducive to seam bowling, but Warwickshire bowled dreadfully in the morning, none more so than Streak, then watched ruefully as the sun shunted the clouds aside in the afternoon.

The main beneficiary was Michael Carberry, the 25-year-old left-hander whose itinerant career has taken him to a third county. Having failed to establish himself at Surrey and Kent, he migrated south during the winter in search of regular first-team cricket and his fifth first-class century yesterday, from 168 balls, confirmed a bright start to the season.

HAMPSHIRE: First Innings

J H K Adams lbw b Carter 40
M A Carberry c Trott b Loudon 102
J P Crawley not out 65
S M Ervine c Trott b Loudon 7
D J Thornely c Frost b Brown 42
C T Tremlett not out 4
Extras (b 7, lb 7, nb 6) 20
Total (4 wkts, 100 overs) 280
N Pothas, A D Mascarenhas, *S K Warne, S D Udal and J T A Bruce to bat.

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-113, 2-180, 3-196, 4-276.

BOWLING: Streak 16-3-46-0; Carter 22-7-49-1; Brown 20-3-57-1; Anyon 12-1-31-0; Loudon 22-1-64-2; Powell 6-0-16-0; Troughton 2-0-3-0.

WARWICKSHIRE: N V Knight, I J Westwood, I J L Trott, A G R Loudon, J O Troughton, M J Powell, D R Brown, T Frost, *H H Streak, N M Carter, J E Anyon.

Umpires: N L Bainton and B Leadbeater.