Northamptonshire missed out on a place in the YB40 semi-finals in agonising circumstances despite David Willey plundering 167, his maiden senior century, in the rout of Warwickshire.
Northamptonshire were denied the Group A title by Nottinghamshire’s win over Kent at Canterbury and wins for Glamorgan and Somerset in Group C then dashed their hopes of progressing to the semi-finals as the best runner-up.
It was 40 minutes after Muhammad Azharullah yorked Recordo Gordon before Northamptonshire discovered their fate which meant an anticlimactic end to a day dominated by Willey, who hit 10 sixes and 12 fours in a spectacular 101-ball innings of clean hitting against a depleted and demoralised attack.
The left-hander had struck his first Twenty20 half-century and claimed a hat-trick in Northamptonshire’s Twenty20 final win over Surrey at Edgbaston nine days earlier and he again made the ground a home-from-home by racing from a 40-ball fifty to his first century in any competition in only 22 more balls.
Willey was surprisingly overlooked for England’s Twenty20 squad against Australia but his inclusion in the England Lions squad for last week’s match against Bangladesh A proves that he is on the selectors’ radar.
This innings was another reminder of Willey’s talents but it was made against a threadbare Warwickshire attack which included only three specialist bowlers and only one of them, off-spinner Jeetan Patel, a senior player. Only Patel, who took two for 32, escaped punishment from Willey who took four of his sixes off Darren Maddy, who was given the honour of leading out Warwickshire in his final one-day appearance at the end of a 20-year career.
Maddy was given a guard of honour by Northamptonshire’s players when he came out to bat, but little went right for him from the moment that Willey lifted his fifth ball over long on for the first in his fusillade of sixes.
Maddy managed only a single from three balls before he was smartly stumped by David Murphy down the leg side off Trent Copeland and departed to a standing ovation.
Willey failed by five runs to equal Wayne Larkins’s Northamptonshire record 40-over score of 172, also made against Warwickshire at Luton 30 years ago, when he scooped Tom Milnes to long on seeking his eleventh six.
But Northamptonshire easily reached their highest 40-over total with Rob Keogh, who gave Willey excellent support in a fifth wicket stand of 101, reaching his first senior fifty.
Keogh also timed the ball sweetly on an excellent batting pitch and reached his fifty with his only six, pulled off a Gordon full toss, before he skied the last ball of the innings to midwicket.
Warwickshire suffered the embarrassment of finishing bottom of their group, below minnows Holland, and without a home win just a year after they suffered a last-ball defeat to Hampshire in last season’s final.
