Neil Carter: Clever cricket the key

Jul 9 2008 By Trevor Catt

WARWICKSHIRE may have lost the element of surprise that helped them win their Twenty20 Cup group but all-rounder Neil Carter believes that they can still reach the competition's finals day if they play "smart cricket" against Kent in this evening's quarter-final at Edgbaston (5.40pm).

Many pundits wrote off the Bears' chances of winning the competition when they lost Twenty20 experts Darren Maddy (broken thumb) and Sanath Jayasuriya, who opted to revive his international career with Sri Lanka, in the space of 24 hours in May.

But Warwickshire made up for the lack of star names with some solid team performances that saw them finish as the top side in the country at the group stage as they lost only one of their 10 matches, and that was after they had already secured a home quarter-final.

Carter has typified Warwickshire's team ethic, taking important wickets and usually getting the innings off to a flying start with an aggressive cameo as opening partner to Jonathan Trott.

"I think when we lost Darren and Sanath so close together a lot of people in the country wrote us off," Carter said.

"But I think people have started to sit up and take notice of us now. We had the best record in the country in the Twenty20 Cup group matches, we are unbeaten in the Championship so people aren't surprised that we are doing so well any more.

"We are doing well without any superstars but we have a good game plan which involves us keeping things very simple and trying to play smart cricket."

The quarter-final is scheduled to be completed in one-day but a reserve day has been set aside and it could be that the tie will have to continue tomorrow if a minimum of five overs a side cannot be bowled today.

"We will go into the game as if there is no rain around," said Carter.