Bears out of sorts at Hove
Jul 28 2009 by Brian Halford, Birmingham Mail
WARWICKSHIRE’S Twenty20 quarter-final misery goes on after they were spun to a 38-run defeat by Sussex at a packed and boisterous Hove.
In six seasons since a quarter-final stage was introduced into the Twenty20, five times have the Bears qualified for it from the group stage – and five times have they faltered there.
This most recent failure was particularly galling as Warwickshire did plenty of the hard work, restricting Sussex to 152 – no more than par.
But the Bears paid the price for having too many batsmen out of form. Jonathan Trott continued his astonishing run with his fifth T20 half-century of the season but the rest folded to the home side’s three-pronged spin attack.
Will Beer, Michael Yardy and Rory Hamilton-Brown (hardly Mushtaq Ahmed, Ian Salisbury and Giles Cheatle) harvested a combined six for 64 from 11 overs to strangle the reply.
Most significantly, three of the top six – Jim Troughton, Tim Ambrose and Tony Frost – hardly middled a ball between them and after Trott perished, harshly adjudged lbw, the rest subsided ignominiously.
The 114 all out was the Bears lowest completed Twenty20 innings and doomed them, for the third time, to watch from afar when Edgbaston hosts the finals day.
Warwickshire could be pretty happy with their bowling effort until the last two overs. When Sussex reached 70 for one from ten overs, the contest was finely balanced but good bowling and excellent fielding fielding yanked it the Bears’ way.
The 11th over, from Rikki Clarke, contained some filth (13 runs) and some fine balls (two wickets).
Luke Wright (38, 31 balls ) heaved a good-length ball to cow corner where Jim Troughton took a smart catch then Hamilton-Brown edged behind.
Then came two wickets courtesy of superb fielding.
Ed Joyce was run out by a stunning direct hit by Trott. Michael Yardy was beaten by Clarke’s boundary throw. Sussex looked set to fall short but Chris Nash thumped 29 from 14 balls and 25 runs from the last two overs gave Sussex momentum they were never to lose.
Trott fought a lone battle, scoring 30 of the first 34 runs and then seeing five partners perish.
Neil Carter sent up a return catch, Troughton’s stumps were shaken by a searing yorker and Ambrose was foxed by a googly.
Ian Westwood hit a six but holed out trying a repeat and Frost played on to Hamilton-Brown’s first ball.
When, two balls later, Trott (56, 47 balls) was bizarrely triggered lbw, even though miles down the wicket, the game was up for Warwickshire.
As wickets tumbled the capacity crowd, and also some spectators perched precariously on neighbouring rooftops, celebrated wildly.
They will be at Edgbaston on August 15. Warwickshire’s players are free to watch Walsall face Southend in a mouth-watering League One contest at The Banks’s Stadium that day.
