Gloucestershire Gladiators v Glamorgan Dragons
Twenty20 Cup
At Bristol
By Richard Latham
Alex Gidman led from the front as Gloucestershire Gladiators clinched a place in the Twenty20 Cup quarter-finals with a six-wicket win over Glamorgan at Bristol.
The skipper conceded just 16 runs from his four overs as the visitors were restricted to a modest 114-6 after winning the toss in good batting conditions.
Then Gidman came in to smack an unbeaten 28, including a six over long-on, to see his side to their target with 16 balls to spare and claim the man-of-the-match award.
The result earned the Gladiators a home draw against Worcestershire in the quarter-finals on Tuesday July 17th and ensured the Dragons would finish bottom of the Midlands, West and Wales Group.
A packed crowd saw Glamorgan make a fast start as the sun for once shone on this season's 20-over competition.
Richard Grant (16) and Robert Croft (21) took 27 off the first three overs. Anthony Ireland conceded all but one of those runs on his way to expensive figures of 1-42.
But once Croft was caught off Ben Edmondson with the total on 33 in the fifth over the Gloucestershire bowlers exerted a stranglehold and only 38 came off the next ten.
Mark Hardinges removed Grant and Damien Wright, while Ben Edmondson sent back Maher and David Hemp was run out by a direct hit from Chris Taylor at backward point attempting a quick single.
Hardinges (2-16), Edmondson (2-21) and Carl Greenidge (0-16) all bowled tightly for their full complement of four overs.
Mark Wallace hit 3 fours in his 17 to boost the meagre total in the closing overs, but the Gladiators looked clear favourites at the halfway stage.
Craig Spearman soon had his middle stump uprooted by Damien Wright when Gloucestershire replied and it was 40-2 when Marshall was caught off a skier at third-man for 24, made off 19 balls.
But Kadeer Ali (29) and Taylor (20) calmed any nerves with a third-wicket partnership of 44 and, although both perished near the end, Gloucestershire always had matters under control.
Gidman came in to settle matters, making his runs off just 15 balls, to complete a very satisfactory evening's work.
Afterwards coach Mark Alleyne told this website: "It was a good performance in which we absorbed the lessons learned from our defeat by Somerset.
"Although Anthony Ireland went for a few early on, the bowlers did another excellent job and we were always going to be favourites chasing a target of 115.
"We put Kadeer Ali back in the side to take the percentage options and he played a key role with the bat at a vital stage.
"We knew from the Somerset game it wasn't going to be the sort of pitch tp go for too many big shots so we were always going to take most of the overs to get the necessary runs."
