By Matt Somerford
Birmingham Bears head north to Yorkshire Vikings on Friday night knowing that their hopes of staying alive in the NatWest T20 Blast will most likely rely on a spin battle.
Headingley may not stand out as a traditional battleground for the slow men, but it will be the stage for four of the best tweakers in this season’s Blast.
In fact, the top three bowlers in terms of economy rate will be on show.
Bears spin duo Jeetan Patel (5.74) and Ateeq Javid (5.73) are the two most thrifty men of those who have sent down more than 20 overs in this season’s competition.
Next on that list is Yorkshire’s Azeem Rafiq (5.95) while leg-spinner Adil Rashid (6.54) sits eighth in a list where nine of the top-10 are all slow men.
And with plenty to play for - the Vikings can confirm a quarter-final place while defeat will end the Bears’ campaign - the game looks set to hinge on the tweakers.
That is a scenario Bears veteran Patel has revelled in so far this season – he is the Blast’s second-leading wicket-taker with 17 – and he puts down his success alongside Javid to a fearless approach in the face of heavy fire.
“You’ve got to be when you’re a spinner because batsmen are looking to put you out of the park before they think of defence,” Patel told ecb.co.uk.
“There’s not much middle ground. Fortunately, it keeps falling on the right side at the moment.
“You’ve got one of two ways of playing the game. You can back down from a situation or front up and puff your chest out and give it a go.
“That’s what it is about. If you have that fearless streak about you are closer to having success.”
Patel and Javid’s economy, and courage when under attack, is set to be fully put to the test by two of the hardest hitters in the game on Friday: Aaron Finch and Jonny Bairstow.
Patel is confident, though, that Warwickshire have the gameplan to stymie any fireworks.
“It is always daunting, but that brings the opportunity to take wickets,” he said.
“As a spinner you want them to try and play shots. It certainly helps when they do and when it goes to hand it’s even better.
“I think with spin you’re working on making the batter take the gamble rather than you. There’s no point tossing it up and giving them an opportunity.
“You’d rather them try and gamble over what they are doing first.”
Patel is modest about his impressive returns this season – praising the new-ball bowlers for allowing him to tie down the middle order – but the 34-year-old admits his preparation off the field has been just as important.
“I reckon with Twenty20 a lot of it is about ‘Mother Cricket’. You try not to annoy her,” he said.
“If you keep trying to do the right things then more often than not you come out on the right side. It’s about how you train, how you prepare and making the right decisions on the park at the right time.
“Then I’ve been helped by the fact when me and 'Teeq' have come on to bowl we’ve had wickets up front. The bowlers have been good this season – we’ve hardly missed out.
“We’ve had the pressure off and guys are having to get themselves in before they can go again. When they are doing that we’ve been managing to pick up a couple of wickets here and there.
“If that has got me up the leaderboard for wickets then that’s fine but it is about trying to get the team over the line.”
Victory is non-negotiable for the Bears on Friday night with defeat sending them out of the tournament and ensuring they will not be in action when Edgbaston hosts finals day.
For a club that has not appeared at Twenty20’s showpiece day since 2003, it is a trend to cause much frustration.
“It has been a while (since Birmingham reached a finals day)”, Patel said.
“Getting finals day at Edgbaston is great for the club, but it would be even better for us to play in it.
“The boys go down and watch on finals day, but to be a player in it would be another level so there is that incentive to get through to the quarter-finals at least and then go from there.
“We will go to Yorkshire knowing we don’t have to worry about what happens if we don’t win because we know we’re out.
“We just try and win every game from now on. We’ve certainly got a side that can do that. It just means we have to go five-from-five to win the comp.”
The Bears will be without Chris Wright and Pete McKay from the team that beat Worcestershire Rapids last time out, while Chris Woakes may be made available after missing selection for the second Investec Test.
Tim Ambrose is named to return along with Boyd Rankin while Oliver Hannon-Dalby is set to face his former employers. Yorkshire have named an unchanged line-up.
* Birmingham have won all three of their completed Twenty20 games against Yorkshire - the last two meetings have been washed out.