Trott eases Warwickshire to comfortable win

Warwickshire 121 for 1 beat Worcestershire118 for 9 by nine wickets
Scorecard

Jonathan Trott carried on his week of selector-nudging when leading Warwickshire to a crushing nine-wicket win against local rivals Worcestershire in the Friends Provident t20 at New Road.

Overlooked by England for the one-day internationals against Scotland and Australia, he took his total to 160 runs in three innings when adding an unbeaten 72 to scores of 42 against Lancashire and 46 against Nottinghamshire.

An efficient bowling performance restricted Worcestershire to a below-par 118 for nine before Trott came out firing with a half-century from 35 balls. Although he was last year's leading scorer in the old Twenty20 Cup with 525 runs, the South African-born batsman seems have been temporarily pigeonholed by the selectors as a Test player rather than a one-day enforcer.

At county level it is a different story as he consistently leads from the front. Worcestershire had no answer as Trott made up for the early loss of Neil Carter.

Completely at ease he finished with 10 fours off 54 balls as Warwickshire cruised home with 3.4 overs to spare. To emphasise their superiority Darren Maddy contributed 44 to an unbroken stand of 100.

Worcestershire's innings was in shreds with the loss of three wickets in seven balls from Carter and Chris Woakes. Sri Lankan veteran Sanath Jayasuriya - only 12 days short of his 41st birthday - sparked the crisis by clipping the last delivery in Carter's opening over to midwicket.

Phil Jaques (29) held up Warwickshire until recalled wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose grabbed his third catch as spin pair Imran Tahir and Ant Botha stifled the middle order while bowling their eight overs for 36 runs.

It was only through the efforts of their least experienced batsman that Worcestershire took their total beyond 100. England Under-19 left-hander Jack Manuel, born on Warwickshire territory at Sutton Coldfield, played with some confidence in making 31 with the help of two fours and a six in an over from Rikki Clarke.

The teenager was finally caught at long-off to give Keith Barker his second wicket and both Ben Scott and Richard Jones were run out in the final over. Ambrose completed the last dismissal in an impressive return to the side after a three-week rest from first-team cricket.