Warwickshire Beat Sussex By Four Wickets

Ian Bell, with an innings of precocious nerve and judgment, gave Warwickshire victory with eight balls to spare. He was never at his most fluent on a pitch which inhibited strokeplay, particularly the drive, but he scored an unbeaten 85, his highest one-day score for Warwickshire, to set up a semi-final meeting with Lancashire at Old Trafford.

Warwickshire were the marginal favourites when they set out to score 197. But they were pushed back on their heels by the bowling of Robin Martin-Jenkins, who took the wickets of Michael Powell, Shaun Pollock and Nick Knight at a cost of three runs in 20 deliveries.

Warwickshire were eight for three. But Bell, who should have been stumped off Mark Davies when on 47, shared brief stands with Dominic Ostler and Trevor Penney, then put on 53 in nine overs with Dougie Brown (26) after rain had dragged the match into the long shadows of evening.

In testing conditions the best batting came from the two youngest players in the match, Bell and the Sussex wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Ambrose, who scored 87.

Sussex, trying to reach what would have been only their second B&H semi-final, had hit only 12 boundaries in their 196 for seven after winning the toss. This was a respectable score in the circumstances, particularly as their captain and most dangerous batsman, Chris Adams, missed the match after falling in training and their other major batsman, Murray Goodwin, was caught behind first ball.

The openers Richard Montgomerie and Ambrose started suspiciously and found acceleration difficult; they made 99 in 28 overs before Montgomerie was bowled by Ashley Giles. But Ambrose went grinding on, hitting only four fours in his innings of 134 balls, and some late biffing by Michael Yardy gave the home supporters some grim hope.