WARWICKSHIRE spinner Jake Lintott’s career-best five-wicket haul was not enough to earn the Bears a third successive Metro Bank One-Day Cup win at Rugby School.
Middlesex completed back to back victories to win by 28 runs.
Lintott looked to have given Warwickshire the advantage as he took five for 37 as Middlesex were bowled out for 217.
But the Bears fell short as they were dismissed for 189.
Lintott told the county’s official website: “I think their total was about par in the conditions.
It looked like they were going to get around 230 at one stage, so we brought it back well – but there are a lot of learnings for us from the way we batted; about how to play on that wicket and how to be effective.
“We showed it in glimpses but just couldn’t string those partnerships together to make a big dent in the total.
“It’s exciting to play in games like that. The surface was challenging for both teams with the bat. As a spinner it is exciting to bowl in those conditions because they don’t come along very often.
“I was delighted with the way I bowled because it hasn’t been the easiest time for me in the last few months so to put in a performance like that was really pleasing.
“It’s overdue and I need to contribute more to games, I’m well aware of that, so it’s nice to put a performance in – it’s just a shame that it didn’t result in a win.”
Warwickshire will now go to Taunton on Sunday to face Somerset in a dress rehearsal for next month’s Vitality Blast quarter-final.
On Friday, Middlesex chose to bat on a turning pitch and Lintott equalled his career-best List A figures.
Captain Ben Geddes struck 48 (57 balls), but while four of Middlesex’s top six passed 30, none reached 50.
Warwickshire’s reply saw Hamza Shaikh top-scoring with 42 (72), but in a losing cause as the game yielded no individual half-century.
Fresh from chasing down a record 387 at Durham two days earlier, Middlesex chose to bat first, forcing the home side to chase on a pitch likely to turn more the longer the match went.
The early loss of Joe Cracknell, bowled by Olly Hannon-Dalby, brought in Sam Robson, hero of that record runfest with 169 not out, but this time Robson reached only 17 before a Hannon-Dalby in-ducker shattered his stumps.
Joshua De Caires batted fluently for 43 (59) but then lifted Adam Sylvester to deep mid-wicket. Geddes and Jack Davies (38, 60) added 50 in 11 overs to take their side to 157 for three in the 33rd over but attacking the spinners was a risky business and the last seven wickets fell for 60 in 16 overs.
Geddes and Davies were lbw to flighted balls from Lintott and Rob Yates respectively. Nathan Fernandes also perished lbw, providing Vansh Jani with his first wicket for Warwickshire.
Hollman (33, 40) hit Tazeem Ali out of the ground but skied a reverse sweep at Lintott who then wrapped up the innings with a triple wicket maiden. With the first two balls of an over he dismissed former Bear Henry Brookes (bowled) and Bear-to-be-next-season Nathan Gilchrist (lbw). Four balls later, James Feldman became the innings’ fifth lbw victim and Lintott had his second career List A five-for.
Warwickshire’s reply reached 61 for the loss of only Ed Barnard, whose off stump was disturbed by Toby Roland Jones, but Hollman then struck in successive overs. Zen Malik was bowled and Alex Davies chipped a full toss to mid off.
Brookes struck a big blow against his former club, uprooting the anchor as Yates (38, 55) played on. Hollman collected his third wicket when Kai Smith hammered to backward point. As the spinners turned the screw, Shaikh charged and missed at Fernandes and Jani pulled and missed at De Caires and was lbw.
Hollman extracted bounce to find Tazeem Ali’s edge through to wicketkeeper Cracknell and when Lintott lapped Gilchrist to Cracknell, Warwickshire last wickets had to find 30. They found just one before De Caires bowled Hannon-Dalby.
