Supporting role suits Trott against Derbyshire

Former Falcons captain Rikki Clarke took three wickets in his old county’s demise for a lightweight 122 and Trott led Warwickshire to a nine-wicket wicket victory with 15.3 overs to spare.

While the England batsman took no risks in his build-up to the Lord’s Test against West Indies on Thursday, his innings was played in the shadow of William Porterfield, who struck 10 fours and a six in making 81 not out from 80 balls.

With their partnership up and running in the opening over after Varun Chopra’s second-ball dismissal by Tim Groenewald, the second-wicket pair had put on 124 when Trott finished the job with successive boundaries.

Warwickshire hit the right note from the outset as Chris Woakes took 2-20 in his first appearance since damaging ankle ligaments against Yorkshire in a pre-season T20 tournament in Barbados.

The 23-year-old claimed a wicket with his 10th delivery when Martin Guptill was lbw for three.

Clarke made his initial contributions by holding a couple of slip catches, the first from Chesney Hughes in Chris Wright’s opening over and then to give Woakes another key wicket when Derbyshire captain Wayne Madsen went for a duck.

Only Wes Durston made significant progress with 44 from 54 balls. Clarke struck with his first ball when Dan Redfern failed to clear Darren Maddy at deep square leg.

Redfern’s innings included a bizarre sequence in which Warwickshire held catches off successive deliveries – but without taking a wicket.

Redfern planted a no-ball from Keith Barker to Jeetan Patel at deep mid-wicket and, with the batsman crossing before the free hit, Durston drilled the next ball to Jim Troughton at mid-off.

Durston eventually exited as Troughton caught him at mid-off – this time for a wicket. Ross Whiteley and Jon Clare soon followed before former Yorkshire all-rounder David Wainwright hit a sprightly 16.

Sussex were also big winners in Group C, beating Unicorns by 144 runs at Hove in their opening match of the tournament.