Report by David Warner
Yorkshire Day was not exactly Yorkshire’s day at Headingley where they lost to Warwickshire by 114 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method in the Royal London One-Day Cup.
But in the end there was a silver lining in the grey clouds for both sides because each managed to qualify for the quarter-final stages of the competition.
Yorkshire, however, having led the North Group for quite some time, had to be content with third place and an away match whereas a well-deserved victory for Warwickshire saw them finish in second spot with a home tie to look forward to.
Chasing Warwickshire’s 283 for six, Yorkshire, who rested Tim Bresnan, lost an over because of two short stoppages for rain and saw their target reduced by a run but they never got anywhere near and were bowled out for 167 in 37.4 overs.
When their ninth wicket went down at 148, they could still have managed a home tie if they had made it to 189 but they were still 22 short when Steven Patterson was dismissed.
The visitors were indebted to three outstanding individual performances, first man-of-the-match Jonathan Trott scoring a beautifully constructed 118 and spinners Ateeq Javid and Jeetan Patel then claiming seven wickets between them, Javid leading the way with a career-best four for 42.
Adam Lyth and David Willey put on a quick 22 at the start of the Yorkshire reply but Lyth then fell to a great slip catch by Laurie Evans and with Alex Lees run out soon afterwards, Yorkshire were never in the hunt.
Australian, Travis Head, batted soundly for his 53 from 63 deliveries with five fours but when he was bowled off stump by Javid, Yorkshire were 125 for six and sinking fast.
Winning the toss, Warwickshire found runs hard to come by in the opening stages against the new-ball pairing of Willey and Patterson and only 16 had been scored by the eighth over when Will Porterfield fell to a tumbling catch to his right by Liam Plunkett at mid-wicket off Patterson.
It stayed tight for a while when Trott came in but he worked the ball around well and made sure that the score kept ticking over throughout his innings.
Another fine diving catch, this time by wicketkeeper, Andy Hodd, brought Plunkett the wicket of Warwickshire’s other opener, Sam Hain, who managed only ten in 13 overs.
Ian Bell came in at 40 for two but Yorkshire kept a tight hold on the reins and the visitors managed only 74 from the first 20 overs. Shortly afterwards Trott completed his half century from 61 balls with five fours by taking a single off Plunkett but Bell chipped the next ball from the paceman straight to Willey at cover, having contributed 21 to the third wicket stand of 52 in ten overs.
Trott continued to play the major role and Tim Ambrose survived a difficult chance on nine when he struck Azeem Rafiq to deep mid-wicket and Karl Carver made a lot of ground to get to the ball but could not make it stick.
Five penalty runs were awarded when a ball from Plunkett to Trott went through to Hodd and deflected off his glove on to a helmet placed behind the wicketkeeper.
Trott’s 19th List A century came off 122 balls with nine fours but with the partnership worth 93 from 19 overs Ambrose was out for 34, driving Rafiq straight to Will Rhodes at long-on.
The end of Trott’s chanceless innings arrived when he hit Patterson high towards the square leg boundary where Jack Leaning positioned himself well for the catch. The former England batsman had received 135 balls and stroked 11 boundaries.
At 214 for five in the 46th over, Warwickshire needed some quick runs and they were supplied by Clarke and then Evans who blasted his way to 48 not out off 30 balls with three fours and two sixes.
Clarke was given out caught on the boundary edge after the fielder, Lyth, had signalled he did not know whether he had taken the ball cleanly, but Evans’ clean-hitting helped Warwickshire to boost their total as 104 gushed off the last ten overs.
Trott said: “I have missed the last couple of games with a back injury, so it was nice to come back and time the ball okay on a tricky wicket.
“They were crucial runs we scored towards the end. We thought 250 would be a good score but Laurie Evans and Rikki Clarke did very well to take us to an even better total. Javid bowled with great skill and was really effective and for our spinners to bowl like that under pressure was very good for us. To get a quarter final home draw is fantastic for Edgbaston.”
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.
