EDGBASTON (Northamptonshire won toss): Warwickshire beat Northamptonshire by 73 runs
IT TAKES something quite extraordinary to upstage a batsman who has scored more runs off one over than anyone else in the 41-year history of England’s premier one-day competition. Brad Hogg produced it yesterday to make sure that Warwickshire buried Northamptonshire under a mountain of runs on their way to the semi-finals.
Hogg, the Australian all-rounder in his first season at Edgbaston, had already made a career-best first-class score of 158 in the County Championship. Now he plundered his highest one-day score, speeding to an unbeaten 94 off only 61 balls, with two sixes and eight fours, to lift Warwickshire to an overwhelming total of 343 for four.
It was far too many for Northamptonshire, whose captain, David Sales, was regretting his decision to put Warwickshire in as early as the seventh over when Neil Carter, the left-arm swing bowler who opens the batting as a pinch-hitter on these occasions, hit 28 off six balls from Steffan Jones.
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Carter had actually been outscored by Mark Wagh in the first six overs but, once Wagh had been caught behind off Johann Louw, he fairly exploded. The first three balls of the next over went for four, the fourth was top-edged over the wicketkeeper for six, the fifth produced another four and the sixth disappeared over mid-wicket for another six.
He was caught at deep backward square in the next over for 43 off 18 balls, but no matter. Only Viv Richards, who struck five sixes and a four for Somerset off David Graveney, of Gloucestershire, and Ian Botham, who hit 30 off Roger Finney, of Derbyshire, have scored more runs in an over in one-day cricket in England and they were both playing in the old John Player League.
Warwickshire never looked back. Nick Knight and Ian Bell put on 114 in 20 overs for the third wicket, and then Hogg joined Jonathan Trott in an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 159 in 26 overs.
Trott was no slouch, scoring his unbeaten 65 off 68 balls, but Hogg raced ahead of him before staging a grandstand finish when he picked up a ball from Louw from outside off stump and swung it over the backward square leg boundary. It was reminiscent of Richards himself in the 1979 World Cup final.
Northamptonshire needed something equally spectacular if they were going to make any sort of challenge, but only Sales threatened Warwickshire with 52 off 50 balls before he was brilliantly caught by Bell, running a long way round the long-on boundary, off Ashley Giles.
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Hogg, whose three championship wickets have cost 137 runs apiece, confirmed that it was his day by bowling Usman Afzaal in his first over and Dougie Brown finished off Northamptonshire with three wickets in five balls that gave him figures of five for 43.
SCOREBOARD FROM EDGBASTON
WARWICKSHIRE
N M Carter c Roberts b Louw 43
M A Wagh c Bailey b Louw 23
*N V Knight c and b Brown 47
I R Bell c Swann b Phillips 68
I J L Trott not out 65
G B Hogg not out 94
Extras (lb 1, w 2) 3
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Total (4 wkts, 50 overs) 343
J O Troughton, D R Brown, A F Giles, T Frost and A Richardson did not bat.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-39, 2-68, 3-182, 4-184.
BOWLING: Jones 10-0-75-0; Louw 10-0-83-2; Phillips 10-0-60-1; Swann 7-0-49-0; Cook 3-0-20-0; Brown 10-0-55-1.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
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J W Cook c Frost b Richardson 33
T W Roberts c Richardson b Brown 8
M van Jaarsveld c Giles b Brown 28
U Afzaal b Hogg 18
*D J G Sales c Bell b Giles 52
G P Swann c Brown b Wagh 38
B J Phillips c Carter b Wagh 33
T M B Bailey c Hogg b Brown 19
J Louw b Brown 20
P S Jones not out 2
J F Brown b Brown 0
Extras (lb 7, w 8, nb 4) 19
Total (43.5 overs) 270
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-16, 2-72, 3-76, 4-116, 5-156, 6-217, 7-233, 8-268, 9-269.
BOWLING: Carter 8-0-48-0; Brown 7.5-0-43-5; Richardson 7-1-46-1; Bell 2-0-8-0; Hogg 8-0-49-1; Giles 7-0-38-1; Wagh 4-0-31-2.
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Man of the match: G B Hogg.
Umpires: B Dudleston and G Sharp.