An unbeaten 92 by Varun Chopra and a whirlwind 43 not out from 15 balls by Laurie Evans overwhelmed Surrey as Warwickshire brought their Royal London One-Day Cup campaign alive with victory by 111 runs in a rain-adjusted match at Edgbaston.
After a long delay in mid-innings, Warwickshire thrashed 84 in six overs to reach a challenging 218 for two and Surrey folded for 153 when set a Duckworth-Lewis target of 265 from 33 overs.
A fourth defeat in six games in Group B has killed off Surrey's hopes but Warwickshire are still in contention with away fixtures to come against Glamorgan and Notts Outlaws.
The match was reduced to 48 overs per-side by a sharp shower before a deluge halted Warwickshire's innings at 134 for one after 27 overs were bowled.
All this in the space of 5 minutes at Edgbaston, where the clearing up continues pic.twitter.com/69V0uTarHd
— Warwickshire CCC (@CricketingBears) August 12, 2014
At this point the batting side would have been getting ready to accelerate through the gears, but after a delay of more than two-and-a-half hours, they had to embark on a mad thrash.
Although Jonathan Trott quickly perished, slogging high towards long off after making 31, Evans destroyed his former county's bowling. Opening up with successive sixes off Stuart Meaker, he dominated a partnership of 70 in 4.1 overs with Chopra.
In all he hit five fours, as well as a massive third six off Meaker, and the mayhem left Surrey's attack reeling.
Even when the game was progressing under more routine circumstances, Warwickshire always gave the impression of being in control, starting with a stand of 89 before Will Porterfield was caught behind for 36 off Tim Linley's first ball.
Chopra went on to hit 10 fours and a six from 99 balls, as he continued a prolific run following a 10-day break since injuring a thigh muscle when making 86 not out against Essex in the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final. In his last eight innings in limited overs formats, he has scored 516 runs.
Varun Chopra in action today against Surrey pic.twitter.com/wqkvyY7DYx
— Warwickshire CCC (@CricketingBears) August 12, 2014
Only Steven Davies, with two sixes in a brisk 37, and Tillakaratne Dilshan promised anything as substantial as Surrey creaked under the pressure of a tough run chase.
While Davies was bowled in Jeetan Patel's first over, Dilshan went on to a cleverly compiled 58 from 60 balls until he was fifth out, top-edging Recordo Gordon (3-25) to Trott at third man.
Patel finished with the best figures of 4-30 and Rikki Clarke completed a good day for former Surrey players with two wickets in successive balls and a pair of catches.
Man of the match Chopra said: "It was a very good team performance. Laurie Evans was brilliant and the runs gave us a good platform for bowling. Jeetan Patel is right up there with the best in every format, in every game."
However Chopra is not reading too much into the result in looking ahead to the re-match in next weekend’s NatWest T20 Blast semi-final, adding: "Winning is always good for confidence but there will be changes in both teams before finals day."