Close Warwickshire 182 for 5 (Bell 65*, Troughton 37) beat Essex 181 for 8 (Grayson 38*, Flower 30, Brown 2-32) by five wickets It began with a parade of cup-winning captains, and finished with the usual champagne antics, but the last-ever Benson and Hedges Final was a disappointingly one-sided affair. Warwickshire, who won the toss and chose to field first, cruised home by five wickets, with more than thirteen overs remaining. Nevertheless, as the competition bowed out after 30 years of support for English cricket, it was at least a day for some names for the future.

Essex, who let themselves down in managing just 181 for 8 in their 50 overs, had given themselves an unexpected glimmer of hope by dismissing Michael Powell and Nick Knight in the space of two overs (21 for 2). But that was as good as it got. Ian Bell and Jamie Troughton, with combined age of 43, flailed an unimpressive bowling attack, and by the time they had added 84 runs in little more than nine overs, the contest was over.

Bell, who has been on the verge of the England team since joining the New Zealand tour last winter, proved his big-match temperament with an unbeaten 65 from 89 balls, and deservedly won the Gold Award. All of his seven boundaries, however, came in partnership with Troughton, whose 37 came from just 33 balls, with eight fours, the majority blazed through the off side.

Troughton belted Ronnie Irani for three fours in a row, and was particularly harsh on the medium-pace of Jon Dakin, whose two overs disappeared for 22 runs. Bell had one stroke of fortune when he inside-edged Andy Clarke to the fine-leg boundary, but there was nothing fortuitous about his next shot, an exquisite square-drive that was reminiscent of Michael Atherton in his pomp.

Troughton fell with the score on 105, at which point Shaun Pollock took over, while Bell bedded down, determined to see the job through. Pollock eventually skied Irani to Dakin at mid-off for 34, and John Stephenson earned a lucky lbw against Trevor Penney. But Dougie Brown prevented a late collapse, and sealed the match with a three through midwicket.

Essex simply never got going. They managed nine fours and one six in 50 overs, and lost Nasser Hussain to the second ball of their innings, caught behind off a scorching legcutter from Shaun Pollock (0 for 1). By the time they had been reduced to 61 for 5 in the 19th over, the remainder of the innings was a case of damage limitation.

Graham Napier was run out by Troughton's direct hit from deep midwicket (32 for 2), Stephenson fell first ball to Neil Carter, edging a flat-footed drive onto his off stump, and Darren Robinson fell in Carter's next over, hoofing a wild slog to Brown at point (40 for 4).

Irani – Essex's captain and man of the moment – squirted a lofted drive to Neil Smith at mid-off (61 for 5), and the writing was on the wall when Andy Flower was well caught down the leg side by Keith Piper, off Smith (86 for 6).

Paul Grayson and Ashley Cowan gave Essex a chance by adding 47 runs for the ninth wicket, but it was too little, too late.

Teams
Warwickshire 1 Nick Knight, 2 Michael Powell (capt), 3 Shaun Pollock, 4 Ian Bell, 5 Jamie Troughton, 6 Trevor Penney, 7 Dougie Brown, 8 Neil Smith, 9 Ashley Giles, 10 Keith Piper (wk), 11 Neil Carter

Essex 1 Nasser Hussain, 2 Darren Robinson, 3 Graham Napier, 4 John Stephenson, 5 Andy Flower (wk), 6 Ronnie Irani, 7 Aftab Habib, 8 Paul Grayson, 9 Jon Dakin, 10 Ashley Cowan, 11 Andy Clarke

Andrew Miller is editorial assistant of Wisden.com

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