RESULT
North Division, Birmingham, July 25, 2014, NatWest t20 Blast
(19.5/20 ov, T:161) 108

Warwickshire won by 52 runs

Player Of The Match
72 (57)
varun-chopra
Report

Chopra helps Bears sneak into quarters

Warwickshire sneaked into the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-finals with the easiest of victories over Leicestershire - and a helping hand from 120 miles to the north.

Warwickshire 160 for 6 (Chopra 72) beat Leicestershire 108 (Boyce 41, Gordon 3-18) by 52 runs
Scorecard
Warwickshire sneaked into the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-finals with the easiest of victories over Leicestershire - and a helping hand from 120 miles to the north.
Nottinghamshire's thrilling win against Yorkshire in Leeds meant the Bears took fourth place in the North Division with a point to spare after their 52-run success at Edgbaston, setting up a trip to Essex on August 2.
Varun Chopra's fourth half-century in this season's tournament helped them to 160 for 6 and for the second time inside a week the Foxes' batting imploded as they mustered only 108 after losing their top four in the Powerplay.
By their own admission, the Bears have a habit of making things unnecessarily difficult and this Twenty20 campaign has been no exception. After reeling off four straight wins, they lost the next four completed fixtures and found themselves in the last chance saloon.
They needed to win the last three games - and then hope the Headingley result went their way, which it did when Yorkshire failed to defend a total of 200 for 5.
Leicestershire, three-time winners of the competition, never got into contention this season and they arrived at Edgbaston on a new low after their dismissal for 90 when replying to Nottinghamshire's 121 for 9 last Sunday.
Their lowest total in the 12 seasons of Twenty20 cricket ratcheted up the desire to make amends on the last night of the group phase. It simply did not happen.
Skipper Josh Cobb exposed the batsmen to another dismal run-chase by choosing to field first and Chopra's single-minded management of the home side's innings ensured it would be a testing target.
Aside from an opening stand of 50, there was only modest support for Chopra once Jigar Naik had bowled William Porterfield for 28 with his fourth delivery. The canny Scott Styris picked up a wicket and also ran out Laurie Evans - and the case for taking the pace of the ball was further justified by Naik, who took 2 for 23, when Rikki Clarke was well caught by Matt Boyce in front of the midwicket rope.
Chopra reached a well-paced half-century from 67 balls with half-a-dozen fours and had just hit his only six when he was caught at long-on off Cobb, one of only two survivors from the successful Foxes team in the 2011 final on this ground.
The Bears pushed Jeetan Patel up the order and he promptly smashed 15, including two sixes, from the first four balls he faced and then drove Ben Raine to long-on from the fifth.
The match was over as a contest before Leicestershire could raise a whimper. A fired-up Clarke bowled Cobb with his sixth delivery and when Greg Smith set off for a single after surviving an lbw appeal in the allrounder's next over, he was run out by Patel. Dan Redfern was quickly leg before to Oliver Hannon-Dalby and the innings was in a complete mess when Niall O'Brien drove Recordo Gordon to Clarke. Boyce raised the only obstacle with 41 from 43 balls until he was bowled by Recordo Gordon.
Birmingham's acting captain Varun Chopra said the best-laid plans at shutting out news of Nottinghamshire's run-chase at Headingley misfired: "We had a chat about not paying any attention to it, then the score was announced every five overs on the scoreboard, so that proved somewhat difficult, but luckily we heard what we wanted to hear.
"We played very well. Obviously we had a lot to play for, Leicestershire not so much, and once we got up and running we were always in a strong position."

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NatWest t20 Blast

North Division
TEAMMWLPTNRR
LANCS14102220.846
NOTTS1493200.642
WORCS1484180.480
WARKS1475160.235
YORKS1465150.588
DURH1457120.106
NHNTS144711-0.899
LEICS14499-0.552
DERBS141123-1.406
South Division
TEAMMWLPTNRR
ESSEX14104200.401
SURR1495180.426
HANTS1495180.136
GLAM1465150.145
SOM146713-0.107
KENT146713-0.229
SUSS146812-0.022
GLOUC145710-0.362
MIDDX142115-0.457