Warwickshire overcome spirited Taylor

Warwickshire 321 for 7 (40overs) beat Leicestershire 235 for 7 (34.1 overs) by 41 runs D/L method
Scorecard

Warwickshire overcame a defiant innings by Leicestershire prospect James Taylor to register their second win in the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition at Edgbaston.

After piling up 321 for 7, the Bears had restricted the Foxes to 235 for 7 when the umpires took the players off in the 35th over because of bad light. The conditions failed to improve and, with Taylor stranded on 92 after facing 77 balls, Warwickshire secured a 41-run victory under the Duckworth/Lewis method.

Earlier, they topped and tailed their highest 40-over total - comfortably beating 301 for 6 against Essex at Colchester in 1982 - with high-octane batting performances by their new-ball bowlers.

Pinch-hitter Neil Carter launched the innings with 68 from 38 balls in a partnership of 96 in 14 overs with Jonathan Trott (33) and Chris Woakes closed the innings with an unbeaten 49 from only 16 deliveries.

After the early mauling by Carter, who pulled sixes off Nathan Buck and Andrew McDonald, Leicestershire continued to suffer as Ian Bell, less explosive but more stylish, made 72 from 58 balls. This included six fours and a sweep for six off Claude Henderson.

It seemed the worst was over for a beleaguered bowling side when Warwickshire lost five wickets for 62 in reaching 234 for 7 by the 35th over, but Woakes and Tim Ambrose (31 not out) added 77 from the last 35 balls.

Woakes targeted the shortest boundary with great success. Two of his four sixes went into the building site, where the new pavilion is under construction, and another landed out of the ground on Edgbaston Road. The young all-rounder also hit four fours in a remarkable innings largely compiled to the discomfort of three bowlers. Buck and Australian all-rounder McDonald conceded 135 runs between them and Wayne White's eight overs cost 86.

White's afternoon went downhill after he knocked out Carter's middle sump with his second ball and Buck later paid a price for his two wickets. Trott was well held by Taylor at deep square leg and Rikki Clarke was bowled, middle and leg, for 23.

Only the older hands came out of the battering with reasonable figures. Matthew Hoggard tempted Darren Maddy into chasing a ball outside off stump and Bell and Jim Troughton were both dismissed reverse sweeping Henderson's left-arm spin.

Carter and Woakes were soon back on centre stage, dismissing Leicestershire's openers, Will Jefferson and Jacques Du Toit, in the first 10 overs. Paul Nixon took up he challenge with 40 from 33 balls. The left-hander shovelled three sixes over the leg-side boundary before top edging to Bell at mid-wicket in Imran Tahir's second over. The talented Taylor helped Nixon put on 73 in 10 overs and went on to hit three sixes and six fours, but Tahir kept Warwickshire on course with 3 for 47.