Trott still hot for Warwickshire
Jonathan Trott's unbeaten 86 saw the visitors home with five balls to spare
Jonathan Trott scored his fourth Twenty20 Cup half-century of the season to send Warwickshire into the quarter-finals by completing a double over Worcestershire.
Warwickshire's win puts them two points clear of Worcestershire in the Midlands/West/Wales Division. Should the Royals draw level on points on Sunday, the Bears will still finish above them thanks to their two wins when the sides met.
England Lions opener Trott, who made an unbeaten 53 in the first meeting at Edgbaston, was again undefeated with 86 when the visitors overhauled a total of 162 for six to win by seven wickets with five balls to spare at New Road.
The result was signposted in a cavalier stand of 105 with pinch-hitter Neil Carter. Feasting on some ragged bowling, they reached 55 at the end of the sixth over and added 50 more before Moeen Ali took two wickets in successive balls.
After top-scoring with 46 against his former county, the left-arm spinner trapped Carter leg before for 45 from 33 balls and then had Jim Troughton caught at cover.
Trott remained untroubled and reached 431 runs from nine Twenty20 innings this season when finishing the match with his third six. He also clouted nine fours off the 62 balls he faced.
To complete a bad night for Worcestershire, Vikram Solanki was unable to lead his side in the field because of a sore back.
Having scored at 11 runs an over in walloping Glamorgan on Wednesday, Solanki’s team fell well short of this pace 48 hours later when batting first on the same pitch.
An eventful second over brought a top-edged six for Solanki, a wicket when the home captain pulled to midwicket and another maximum when Steven Davies cleared the square-leg fence.
Stephen Moore lost his off stump in a controlled spell by Carter and Davies, who made 22 from 12 balls, sliced to third man to give former football professional Keith Barker his 14th wicket in this season’s competition.
Worcestershire then enjoyed their most profitable phase when left-hander Moeen put together a partnership of 63 in nine overs with Ben Smith.
Moeen hit three fours and a six before he stepped in front of a straight ball from Barker and Smith was clearly annoyed with himself when dumping a full toss from Steffan Piolet to Tony Frost at deep square-leg to depart for 30.
Ashley Noffke gave the innings a final flourish with a rapid 32, driving a six over long-off and flicking two fours to fine leg off consecutive balls to leave Rikki Clarke with a sorry return of 1-51 from four overs.
