Director of cricket Dougie Brown has hailed the “complete performance” which earned Warwickshire victory over Yorkshire last night and guaranteed them a home tie in the Royal London Cup quarter-finals.
The Bears rose to the pressure of a must-win occasion at Headingley and duly won, by 114 runs (D/L).
They posted a hefty 283 for six thanks to Jonathan Trott’s 118 (his 19th limited overs century) which was well-supported by Laurie Evans (48 not out), Tim Ambrose (34) and Rikki Clarke (a timely 18 from just nine balls).
Yorkshire were then dismissed for 167 after Chris Wright’s fine opening spell increased the pressure which spinners Ateeq Javid (four for 42) and Jeetan Patel (three for 34) skilfully exploited.
The victory left the Bears looking forward to finding out tonight who, from the South Group, will visit Edgbaston in the quarter-finals on August 17 or 18.
And it came as a major lift after the disappointment of going out of the NatWest T20 Blast three days earlier.
“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 in games. We have been putting in some big individual performances without the supporting efforts that you need to win games.
“But last night 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.
“It was a really good batting display in tricky conditions, with us knowing that bad weather was likely to come in at some point and also knowing we had to keep an eye on the run-rate because that might come into the qualification equation.
“That total meant Yorkshire were under pressure and then Wrighty increased that pressure with superb bowling up front and Ian Bell added to it with a brilliant run out. Then the spinners did their work perfectly. Jeets was outstanding as always and Ateeq bowled with real intelligence, varying between T20 and championship-style bowling.”
Warwickshire’s attention now reverts to four-day cricket as they remain in Leeds for a crucial Specsavers County Championship match against Yorkshire starting on Thursday.
Full details of our Royal London One-Day Cup quarter final at Edgbaston will be released at www.warwickshireccc.com following completion of the South Group fixtures on Tuesday 2 August.
