Bears Book Spot In Quarters

A Keith Barker hat-trick helped Warwickshire to a 14-run victory over Yorkshire at Edgbaston and has secured their place in the next round of the Friends Provident t20.

The Bears are now sitting pretty in second place in the North Group with 19 points, just one point behind Notts Outlaws who succumbed to a rain-affected nine-wicket defeat at the hands of Lancashire Lightning at Old Trafford.

Warwickshire’s victory means that fifth-placed Northants – who currently have amassed 11 points from 13 games, one match less than the Bears have played – can no longer overhaul Jim Troughton’s side.

Yorkshire skipper Andrew Gale won the toss, elected to field and tossed the ball to leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who rewarded his captain’s decision with a miserly opening spell. However, Clint McKay was unable to replicate his partner’s performance in the face of some belligerent strokeplay from Jonathan Trott (19) and Neil Carter (27).

Despite Rashid’s accuracy, the Bears’ opening pair put on 44 for the first wicket in just 5.5 overs before Steven Patterson accounted for Carter, who faced 21 deliveries and hit two fours and two sixes.

Four runs later, David Wainwright collected a tidy caught and bowled chance off Trott, and this sparked a collapse of sorts as the Bears lost four wickets for just 17 runs thanks to some resourceful bowling from Rashid, Wainwright and Patterson.

Troughton was the first to fall, off the bowling of Rashid, and then Wainwright continued to put the hosts under pressure as he claimed the wickets of both Darren Maddy (3) and Barker (1) in his third over.

Rikki Clarke (39 off 29 deliveries) mounted a fight back, but wickets continued to tumble at the other end, as Tim Ambrose (3) and Ant Botha (2) both fell to Patterson, who finished with figures of 3-25 from his four overs, leaving the Bears struggling at 97-7 with just 25 balls to go. However, some lusty hitting from Clarke and Chris Woakes (27* off 12 balls with one four and two maximums) allowed the hosts to rally to an eventual total of 145-8 from their 20 overs.

Yorkshire’s response got off to a poor start when Gale was caught by Botha off the bowling of Carter, but the in-form Adam Lyth and Herschelle Gibbs then set about amassing a 38-run partnership off just 3.4 overs.

Barker eventually bowled Gibbs (15) with 41 runs on the board, and three overs later Steffan Piolet took the big wicket of Lyth when a short delivery induced the let-handed opener to tread on his stumps.

As has so often been the case this season, Warwickshire’s spin twins, Botha and Imran Tahir, set about expertly strangling the Yorkshire run-chase during the middle overs, conceding just 35 runs from eight overs and sharing four wickets.

Tahir claimed the crucial wicket of Jacques Rudolph (27) with a googly that defeated the South African’s defences and also removed Jonathan Bairstow (6) via a smart Amborse stumping, while Botha removed Gerard Brophy (4) and Adil Rashid (4) in successive overs.

The excellent performance of Warwickshire’s spinners left the Yorkshire lower-order with a huge task on their hands, and despite the best efforts of Clint McKay (20 and Rich Pyrah (13) they rapidly fell behind the run-rate. Forced to take chances against the returning Barker, both Pyrah and McKay attempted to hit out off but could only pick out Rikki Clarke at long-off, and Barker ended proceedings by clean bowling Wainwright to claim a personal milestone and a hard-fought victory for the Bears.

Warwickshire Bears 145-8 (Clarke 39; Patterson 3-25) beat Yorkshire Carnegie 131 (Lyth 31; Barker 4-19) by 14 runs.