Warwickshire Trott their way into the quarters
ROUND-UP
JONATHAN Trott may have made the eye-catching century but Warwickshire director of cricket Dougie Brown insists his supporting cast ensured the Bears a home quarter-final tie against Essex.
Yorkshire, who travel to Kent in the last eight, had Warwickshire pinned back early on after openers Will Porterfield (7) and Sam Hain (9) struggled.
Trott then calmed the waters by compiling 119 – the 19th List A century of his career – but there was still work to be done when the former England batsman departed off the bowling of Steven Patterson.
With five overs to go, Laurie Evans upped the ante and finished on an unbeaten 48 from just 30 balls, while Rikki Clarke also chipped in with a quickfire 18.
And Yorkshire’s chase of 284 never got going as spinners Ateeq Javid (4-42) and Jeetan Patel (3-34) caused havoc among the ranks – with only Travis Head reaching a half-century.
“It was an outstanding team effort, a complete performance,” said Brown.“In the last few weeks we have been criticised quite a lot, and rightly so, for not getting ourselves over the line.We have been putting in some big individual performances without the supporting efforts that you need to win games.
“But it was a really good all-round performance. Trotty’s innings was world-class and then we had late cameos from Laurie and Rikki that just supplied that late impetus that you need but was an area in which we had struggled in T20 games.
“Jeets was outstanding as always and Ateeq bowled with real intelligence, varying between t20 and championshipstyle bowling.”
RESULTS
Monday dashed Durham’s North Group qualification hopes after their game with Lancashirewas abandoned – leaving the door open for Worcestershire to snatch fourth spot.
Nottinghamshire, who also entered the final round in contention, made a competitive 284-8 thanks to half-centuries for Riki Wessels, Samit Patel and Dan Christian.
But one day on from hitting his first century since recovering from cancer treatment, Tom Fell (63no) – alongside skipper Daryl Mitchell (61no) – ensured the Pears stayed well ahead of the curve.
And it proved vital as the rain then came 24 overs into the reply, handing Worcestershire a 35-run win via Duckworth-Lewis and a quarter-final date with South Group winners Somerset in Taunton.
“The boys have worked hard, particularly in these last two matches, and played really well and I’m very proud of their efforts to manage to get us through,” said director of cricket Steve Rhodes.