Before his move to Warwickshire last year, Darren Maddy acquired the nickname of Mr Twenty20 as he was the outstanding player in the Leicestershire Foxes team who reached the finals day of the Twenty20 Cup four years in a row. In yesterday's quarter-final, though, Maddy made some poor decisions as Warwickshire Bears captain and helped Kent Spitfires, the holders, to progress with comfort to this season's finals day on July 26.

The main beneficiary of Maddy's mistakes was Darren Stevens, his former Leicestershire team-mate, who made a match-turning 69 from 32 balls, and then took two for 29as the Warwickshire's pursuit petered out.

Much of the Bears' success in the competition had been based around Ian Salisbury and Ant Botha, their slow bowlers. They were progressing nicely again, bowling four overs in tandem that cost only 16 runs, leaving Kent awkwardly placed on 76 for four after 14 overs, only for Maddy to replace Salisbury with Tim Groenewald, who was hit for 22 in one over.

Then, for the nineteenth over, Botha was taken off in favour of Chris Woakes, who was savaged as Stevens hit him for six, four, six, six. Woakes sent down five balls, two of which were high full tosses, which meant that he was ordered out of the attack by Rob Bailey, the umpire.

Maddy bowled the last three balls of the over himself and, although he yorked Stevens with his first ball, the damage had been done. That nineteenth over eventually cost 34 as Kent hit 99 from the last six overs. Maddy made one final costly decision when, having made 27 from 18 balls, he attempted a risky single and was run out when Ryan McLaren sidefooted the ball on to the stumps. It had not been a good night for Mr Twenty20.

Scoreboard

Kent

J L Denly c Frost b Martin 27
*R W T Key c Troughton b Carter 15
M J Walker c Powell b Groenewald 1
Yasir Arafat c Troughton b Botha 10
D I Stevens b Maddy 69
J M Kemp b Salisbury 9
Azhar Mahmood not out 25
R McLaren not out 6
Extras (b 1, lb 6, w 2, nb 4) 13

Total (6 wkts, 20 overs) 175

G O Jones, J C Tredwell and S J Cook did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-44, 3-54, 4-60, 5-98, 6-158.

Bowling: Woakes 3.3-0-48-0; Martin 3-0-15-1; Groenewald 3-0-34-1; Carter 3-0-16-1; Botha 3-0-14-1; Salisbury 4-0-34-1; Maddy 0.3-0-7-1.

Warwickshire

I J L Trott c Walker b McLaren 13
N M Carter b Arafat 2
J O Troughton st Jones b Cook 22
*D L Maddy run out 27
T Frost c McLaren b Stevens 8
A G Botha c Key b Arafat 35
T D Groenewald c Denly b Stevens 1
M J Powell c Denly b Arafat 10
I D K Salisbury not out 6
C R Woakes not out 1
Extras (lb 6, w 2) 8

Total (8 wkts, 20 overs) 133

C S Martin did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-40, 3-42, 4-68, 5-76, 6-81, 7-122, 8-132.

Bowling: Azhar 4-0-16-0; Arafat 4-0-29-3; Cook 4-0-31-1; McLaren 4-0-22-1; Stevens 4-0-29-2.

Umpires: R J Bailey and J W Lloyds.