WORCESTERSHIRE Royals held their nerve in a last-over drama in front of a sell-out 5,000 crowd and squeezed home by one run against Warwickshire Bears in their opening Twenty20 Cup fixture at New Road.

Graeme Hick made 67 from 43 balls to take the Royals to 177-7 and their neighbours reached 176-9 when Michael Powell edged the last delivery from veteran all-rounder David Leatherdale to close with an unbeaten 40 from 26 deliveries.

A six on to the New Road balcony was Hick's opening salvo in a bruising half-century from 33 balls and Ben Smith added 47 from 28 deliveries to take Worcestershire to their second highest total in 12 attempts in the competition.

The two former captains shared in the biggest stand, cracking 49 from five overs for the third wicket, before Hick, having hit three sixes and six fours, was bowled by an arm ball from spinner Jim Troughton.

Neil Carter, the only player to have appeared in each of Warwickshire's 14 games in the 20-over format, claimed the first two wickets and Troughton's left-arm spin surprisingly earned figures of 2-10 when South African Zander de Bruyn was caught at deep mid-wicket.

Paceman Nick Warren, the eighth bowler used by Warwickshire, profited from late slogging with 3-25, including the leg-before dismissal of Smith, but Gareth Batty kept Worcestershire going with an unbeaten 21 from 14 balls on his return from England duty.

Warwickshire failed to generate sufficient momentum and slumped to 68-5 by the ninth over.

Kabir Ali, temporarily released by England before rejoining the one-day squad in Durham today, bowled Carter off a bottom edge and Hick held a stunning slip catch, low to his right, when Nick Knight edged Nadeem Malik.

England batsman Ian Bell mis-cued to extra cover off Leatherdale and worse followed when Troughton and Alex Loudon were run out in their urgency to raise the scoring rate.

Jonathan Trott was first to adjust the tempo, emulating Hick's six into the executive box area, and Worcestershire were obviously relieved when Kabir caught the South African at long-off for 41 from 30 balls.

Dewald Pretorius then turned the pressure back on the home side by taking 20 from five balls by Batty before holing out to third-man.

But Powell took the result to the death after cool-hand Leatherdale had Stuart Eustace stumped in the final over.