Surrey take the spoils

Surrey lifted the ECB U13 County Cup after they comfortably beat Warwickshire in a one-sided final at Oundle School on Sunday.

As they have been traditionally, the semi-finals and final were played on the Bank Holiday weekend with Surrey, Warwickshire, Dorset and Yorkshire all hoping to lift the prestigious trophy.

In the first of the two semis, which were played on Saturday, Warwickshire crushed Dorset by nine wickets to move into the final.

Dorset looked to have set a challenging total when they reached 187 for six from their 40 overs, wicket-keeper Lewis McManus top-scoring with 62, but Warwickshire had other ideas.

Boosted by opener Basit Zaman's rapid 44 in a first-wicket stand of 57, Warwickshire cruised to victory in just 20 overs with captain James Fry unbeaten on 63 and Mark Best 52 not out.

In stark contrast to that one-sided game, the other semi-final was a much tighter affair which went down to a nail-biting last over.

Yorkshire scored 162 for seven in which Will Rhodes top-scored with 46 while Jack Winslade was the pick of the Surrey attack with 4-24 from his eight overs.

At 81 for six in reply, Surrey looked to be heading for defeat but a seventh-wicket partnership of 71 between Matthew Stiddard (28) and Harshil Patel (35 not out) put them back in the hunt.

Two quick wickets then looked to swing the match back towards Yorkshire but Umar Rehman played a key role as the last 11 runs for victory were scored under intense pressure.

After a delay to Sunday's final due to torrential overnight rain, Surrey batted first with opener Ben Rogers leading from the front.

He hit 74 and received valuable support Matthew Stiddard and Charlie O'Brien, who hit 24 and 23 not out respectively.

Once again Warwickshire set off in pursuit at a rapid rate but only Mark Best (42) stayed for any length of time.

Falling behind the required rate when they slipped to 94 for three, Warwickshire still looked to have an outside chance of chasing down the total but a dramatic collapse, where the last seven wickets fell for only 15 runs, doused their hopes of victory.

Shane Thompson, with 4-19, and Marcus Dawes, who took 3-27, caused most of the damage.

In the third place play-off, Dorset were skittled by Yorkshire for a paltry 55 as Curtis Free took 5-11. Yorkshire duly knocked off the runs in 16 overs for the loss of only one wicket.

Semi-Finals: Dorset 187-6, Warwickshire 188-1 - Warwick won by 9 wickets; Yorkshire 162-7, Surrey 183-8 - Surrey won by 2 wickets

3rd Place Play-off: Dorset 55, Yorkshire 56-1 - Yorkshire won by 9 wickets

Final: Surrey 183-7, Warwickshire 109 - Surrey won by 74 runs