Stephen Peters, with a single one-day hundred in his career at the start of the season, narrowly missed out on his second century in a week as his fifth-wicket stand of 144 with Riki Wessels - the was the highest between the counties in the competition - secured Northamptonshire's victory over Warwickshire despite Neil Carter taking three wickets in four balls. Warwickshire have three wins to make up on the top two in the Midlands group with four games remaining.

Defeat was especially cruel for Jonathan Trott, who followed his 125 not out against Northamptonshire in the same competition last season by hitting 120 not out from 142 balls. The pugnacious Trott has been in even better form than Peters during the first month of the campaign, scoring 104 against Derbyshire in the Championship only three days earlier. Notwithstanding a very sharp chance to David Sales early on he looked extremely solid - and needed to be as wickets fell all around.

The group of South African-born bowlers who make up the Northamptonshire seam attack proved effective in the early stages and, after Ant Botha had succumbed to a reverse paddle, Trott found mature support from a pair of 19-year-olds, Richard Johnson, on debut, and Chris Woakes.

Johnson also impressed behind the stumps and one leg-side take standing up to Lee Daggett was worthy of Bob Taylor at his best. By then, however, Northamptonshire had recovered from a shocking start during which Carter found edges from Niall O'Brien and Nicky Boje and tempted Sales to chop on.

With his left-armer's slant and a little movement off the pitch to take the ball farther from the right-hander, Carter continued to prove a handful but, with no need for the batsmen to take risks chasing less than five an over, Peters could afford to adopt a pragmatic approach even though it ultimately cost him a personal hundred.

Warwickshire
N M Carter lbw b Van der Wath 0
*D L Maddy c O'Brien b Van der Wath 5
I J Westwood c O'Brien b Hall 7
I J L Trott not out 120
L C Parker c Peters b Boje 19
M J Powell c O'Brien b Klusener 8
A G Botha b Brown 19
R M Johnson b Hall 20
C R Woakes lbw b Hall 14
M Zondeki not out 0

Extras (lb 5, w 15) 20
Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 232

L M Daggett did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-20, 3-22, 4-72, 5-88, 6-138, 7-190, 8-230.

Bowling: Van der Wath 9-0-45-2; Louw 8-0-43-0; Hall 8-1-39-3; Brown 7-0-34-1; Boje 10-0-33-1; Klusener 8-0-33-1.

Northamptonshire
S D Peters not out 97
N J O'Brien c Trott b Carter 7
D J G Sales b Carter 0
*N Boje c Botha b Carter 0
R A White c Johnson b Maddy 24
M H Wessels b Daggett 78
L Klusener not out 7

Extras (b 4, lb 4, w 5, nb 10) 23
Total (5 wkts, 45.3 overs) 236

A J Hall, J J van der Wath, J Louw and J F Brown did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-12, 3-12, 4-79, 5-223.

Bowling: Carter 7.5-2-31-3; Daggett 8.4-1-43-1; Zondeki 8-0-33-0; Woakes 6-0-37-0; Maddy 6-0-32-1; Botha 8-0-43-0; Trott 1-0-9-0.

Umpires: R A Kettleborough and R T Robinson.