overs. Although they lost Craig Spearman with the score on 22, the Gladiators knocked off their target easily, with nine wickets and five overs to spare. (Cricinfo scorecard) Northamptonshire v Worcestershire (5 July) Match abandoned; Northamptonshire (1pt), Worcestershire (1pt) No play was possible at The County Ground, Northampton due to rain, and the hosts Northamptonshire Steelbacks qualified for the quarter-finals thanks to the no-result. (Cricinfo scorecard) Worcestershire v Glamorgan (6 July) Worcestershire (2pts) beat Glamorgan (0pts) by 37 runs Both Worcestershire Royals and Glamorgan Dragons were knocked out before the last round of the Twenty20 Cup group stage, so the match at New Road was fairly academic. It did not stop Worcestershire from amassing one of the highest scores in Twenty20 Cup history with 223 for 9 – Ben Smith only taking 45 balls to smack 105 off the Glamorgan bowlers, with twelve fours and six sixes, as he lifted his career Twenty20 average from 15 to 20.62. The partnership of 149 with Graeme Hick was enough to win the match for Worcestershire, as Glamorgan never quite got the hang of Shoaib Akhtar – who bowled two overs for 14 with a no-ball and a wide. Glamorgan ended up only losing five wickets, but 224 was always too much to ask, and they finished with a total 186 for 5. (Cricinfo scorecard) Worcestershire v Yorkshire (8–11 July) Yorkshire (20pts) beat Worcestershire (4pts) by three wickets Yorkshire closed the gap to the promotion spots from 6.5 to 1.5 points after a three-wicket win at New Road over Worcestershire. Matthew Hoggard got a good return to form after being smashed out of the Twenty20 format with an economy rate of 11, taking three for 68 in Worcestershire's first innings, yet the hosts made 345 before being bowled out shortly before stumps on day 1. Richard Pyrah, playing his first first-class game of the season, and Craig White then rescued Yorkshire from 113 for 4 with fifties, but Nadeem Malik and Kabir Ali finished with three wickets each to get them all out for 300, trailing by 45. Then, Tim Bresnan took two early wickets before stumps, and continued on day three to end with career-best figures of five for 42. However, another England prospect, Kabir Ali, took four more wickets, as Yorkshire were 222 for 6 overnight – needing 46 runs to win. They lost wicket-keeper Ismail Dawood early, but were not