A DOWNPOUR shortly after 4pm prevented any further play in a match already reduced to 47 overs per side. Had the rain come five minutes earlier, no result would have been possible and Northamptonshire would have collected their first point of the season in the C & G Trophy. But Warwickshire’s first victory against county opposition came too late to give them any chance of progressing further.

Although Neil Carter’s 30-ball cameo ensured that Warwickshire were ahead on Duckworth-Lewis, the basis for their victory was laid by the bowlers. Northamptonshire lost three wickets in the first 11 overs, two of them to Lee Daggett, 23, a former Durham University seam bowler making his county debut.

Alex Loudon, captaining Warwickshire for the first time, used his attack imaginatively. Chris Rogers, with a fifty off 56 balls, and Lance Klusener with another off 62, repaired the early damage for Northamptonshire, but with only 74 coming off the last 13 overs, insufficient runs came at the death.