Leicestershire Foxes have moved into second place in the North Group of the Natwest T20 Blast after a seven-wicket win over Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston.
An unbeaten 66 from Tim Ambrose had helped the Bears reach 160-5, but an unbroken 93-run partnership between Umar Akmal and Niall O'Brien guided the visitors to victory with nine balls remaining.
The Bears won the toss, but they soon found themselves two wickets down as Varun Chopra (2) and Ian Bell (19) both fell cheaply to leave the score on 22-2.
However, a third-wicket partnership of 80 between William Porterfield and Tim Ambrose took Birmingham into three figures before Porterfield fell for 40 off 27 deliveries.
Ambrose continued at a solid rate and brought his half-century up off 46 balls, and although Laurie Evans and Rikki Clarke fell before the end of the 20 overs, Ambrose finished unbeaten on 66 off 54 deliveries to leave the Foxes chasing 161.
Birmingham required their opening bowlers to keep it tight during the early stages of Leicestershire's reply, but Ned Eckersley and Mark Cosgrove ran riot during the opening three overs before Eckersley (16) departed with the score on 38 after 3.2 overs.
Andrea Agathangelou (1) went second ball to encourage the home side, and the wicket of Cosgrove (44) in Jeetan Patel's opening over left the Foxes on 72-3 after seven overs.
However, Akmal (52*) and O'Brien (40*) combined to take the game away from the Bears, with the duo adding eight fours and a six during a 70-run spell in the middle to help their side to a comfortable win.
Darren Plant
