Warwickshire rewarded by Bell's prudence

Sussex 196-7 Warwickshire 197-6 Warks win by six wickets

Ian Bell gave further proof of his burgeoning talent with a composed half-century to help Warwickshire into the semi-finals of the Benson and Hedges Cup here yesterday. Warwickshire will now meet Lancashire, leaving Sussex to ponder for another year their unenviable record of having reached just one semi-final in the 30-year history of the competition in this format.

Runs were never easy to find on an unhelpful pitch, and in a match punctuated with stoppages for rain, Bell's fine innings echoed that of the Sussex openers, Richard Montgomerie and Tim Ambrose. Prudence and application were the watchwords, not that Robin Martin-Jenkins gave Warwickshire's upper order much chance of demonstrating either, whipping out the first three for next to nothing in 20 balls.

But Bell, just 20, steadied things before gradually wresting the initiative and ultimately victory from the home side to finish with an unbeaten a match-winning 85 – his highest score in one-day cricket to date – and earn the Gold Award.

The Sussex innings was founded on a solid opening stand of 99 between Montgomerie and the teenager Ambrose. The former had passed 50 for the fourth time in his last five innings in the Cup when he lost his off stump, attempting to push the score along. Unfortunately the 19-year-old Ambrose, whose 87 equalled his best in limited overs for Sussex, was never able to step up the scoring rate quite enough although there was a valiant knock of 22 from Michael Yardy, who later had Sussex pulses racing with a couple of Warwickshire wickets that raised hopes briefly before Bell nipped those in the bud with a seventh-wicket stand of 48 with Neil Smith.