Warwickshire sent their big travelling support into raptures at Lord’s as they crushed Surrey by eight wickets to secure the Royal London Cup in superb fashion.
It was a performance of high class all-round by the Bears as they bowled Surrey out for 136 and then eased to 137 for two from just 30.2 overs.
After choosing to bat (as the Bears would have in light of a pitch likely to deteriorate) Surrey reached 99 for two before the innings went into freefall with the last eight wickets falling for 37 runs in 16 overs.
A target of 136 was modest, though no formality on a used pitch. But openers Jonathan Trott and Sam Hain laid a solid platform with a stand of 45 in 11 overs
It was a fantastic collective bowling display by the Bears with two wickets apiece for Ateeq Javid (two for 15), Chris Woakes (two for 24), Olly Hannon-Dalby (two for 27) and Jeetan Patel (two for 28), as well as one for Chris Wright who bowled an importantly tight early spell to rein Surrey in after a brisk start.
A target of 136 was modest, though no formality on a used pitch. But openers Jonathan Trott and Sam Hain laid a solid platform with a stand of 45 in 11 overs and Trott went on to supervise the chase to perfection with an unbeaten 82 (100 balls, ten fours) – a second half-century to go with his three centuries in this season’s Royal London Cup.
Under morning cloud, with the floodlights on, Surrey started their innings well as Jason Roy and Steven Davies added 45 in 8.3 overs but the openers fell in quickfire fashion to excellent work in the field. Roy (24, 30 balls) clipped Wright to mid-wicket and Evans took a magnificent one-handed catch. Davies (23, 29 balls) perished to a superb leg-side stumping by Tim Ambrose off Javid.
Wright’s skilful spell of 6-0-17-1 applied a further brake to the innings but, at 99 for two in the 25th over, Surrey had a decent foundation. That foundation was shredded during the next hour by some scintillating cricket by the Bears.
Kumar Sangakkara, never fluent on his way to 21 from 39 balls, aimed a big drive at Hannon-Dalby and edged to Ambrose. Ben Foakes and Zafar Ansari departed for ducks, lbw to Hannon-Dalby and caught by Evans at short-extra cover off Patel respectively.
Three wickets had fallen for three runs. Then after Rory Burns and Sam Curran added 16 to take the score to 121 for five, the last five wickets disappeared for 15.
The reply was perkily launched by Trott with two leg-side boundaries in the first over from Jade Dernbach and the Bears made solid progress from that point with the first two wickets adding 89.
Javid bowled Sam Curran through an injudicious pull, Tom Curran was run out by Hannon-Dalby’s throw from short-third man, Gareth Batty was bowled by a nip-backer from Woakes and Burns (40, 87 balls) gave Patel the charge, missed and was bowled.
How Jade Dernbach was not adjudged lbw to Patel, on the back foot, for nought only umpire Tim Robinson knows, but the number 11’s stumps were soon wrecked by Woakes to complete a top-drawer effort with the ball by the Bears.
The reply was perkily launched by Trott with two leg-side boundaries in the first over from Jade Dernbach and the Bears made solid progress from that point with the first two wickets adding 89.
Trott and Hain put on 45 and, after the latter lifted a reverse-sweep at Ansari and was caught at point, Trott and Bell added 44 before Bell gloved a pull at Stuart Meaker.
But Ambrose joined Trott to apply the finishing touch with an unbroken alliance of 48 from 48 balls as joyous cries of ‘Warwickshire la-la-la’ filled the air. In terms of bowling, fielding and batting, the Bears had produced pretty much the perfect limited-overs performance.
