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Bears miss out on last eight

Warwickshire failed to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Twenty20 Cup despite beating rivals Worcestershire by 11 runs at New Road.

The Bears triumphed after overcoming a dazzling 90 from Royals skipper Vikram Solanki.

Facing a challenging victory target of 197 Worcestershire looked capable of clinching their third Midlands-West-Wales division win in a row while Solanki and Graeme Hick were at the crease.

After Lou Vincent had been run out for 13, they smashed 75 off seven overs to give Warwickshire the jitters.

Once the stand was broken by Alex Loudon bowling Hick (26), bottom-of-the-table Royals' fortunes began to subside despite Solanki's heroics in front of a 5,000 sell-out crowd.

Spinner Loudon also dismissed Ben Smith, Gareth Batty and Roger Sillence to claim impressive figures of four for 20 and earned the man of the match award.

His splendid efforts, however, were not enough to enable Warwickshire to qualify for the last eight as one of the best two third-placed sides.

Hard-hitting Solanki's dominance ended when he was trapped leg before by Dougie Brown after hammering two sixes and 14 fours off 50 balls.

It signalled the beginning of the end for the Royals who last week beat the Bears by four runs at Edgbaston.

It also ended their run of six limited-overs wins on the trot against Warwickshire.

After winning the toss, the Bears powered to 100 for two at the halfway stage in their innings before the battling Royals managed to keep them in check at 196 for seven.

Top scorer was Jonathan Trott with 61 with Worcestershire's most successful bowler being Kiwi Vincent who took three for 28.

Nick Knight and Mark Wagh gave Warwickshire a sound start with an opening stand of 47 in six overs.

The partnership however was broken when Wagh was run out for 26 after Knight had set off for an unwise single. Hick reacted quickly with a throw in from extra cover to pave the way for Trott to start taking over centre stage.

He soon began lifting the tempo along with Knight (41) who finally perished when he skied Vincent to Solanki at Vincent to mid-off.

Michael Powell quickly fell to Vincent when he was comfortably caught on the mid-wicket boundary by Smith.

Trott's eye-catching exploits ended when he skied Sillence to Solanki at deep mid-wicket after cracking two sixes and six fours off 36 balls.

Another Solanki catch accounted for Loudon off spinner Batty before Vincent completed his best figures so far for Worcestershire by removing Tim Ambrose.

Paceman Sillence finished with two for 35 by ousting Neil Carter for 17 off seven deliveries.

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