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Essex Eagles v Gloucestershire Gladiators
15/07/2010
Friends Provident t20 South Division
At Chelmsford
By Richard Latham
Gloucestershire’s interest in this season’s Friends Provident Trophy ended with a seven wicket defeat by Essex at Chelmsford.
The Gladiators made 162-5 from their 20 overs after losing the toss, Chris Dent top-scoring with 31. But it never looked likely to be enough on the compact ground and the Eagles reached their target with eight balls to spare.
Alastair Cook was dropped twice on three before going on to top score with 73, sharing an opening stand of 119 with Ravi Bopara, who made 59.
Gloucestershire’s attack featured three spinners, but they were never able to apply much pressure after the early fielding lapses.
Alex Gidman’s decision to promote himself to opener worked well as he contributed 30 to an opening stand of 48 with Aaron Redmond inside six overs before being bowled by Maurice Chambers.
It was 49-1 after the six overs power play and the total had progressed to 73 when Redmond was also bowled, attempting to reverse sweep left-arm spinner Tim Phillips, for 26.
Dent smashed 2 sixes off a Phillips over as he moved to 31 before being caught at long-on by Alastair Cook to make it 93-3 in the 13th over.
Taylor began carefully and boundaries dried up for a while as Abdul-Kadeer Ali holed out to deep mid-wicket for eight, but Gloucestershire did well off the last four overs, adding 43 to their total.
Taylor hit sixes off Scott Styris and Ravi Bopara to reach 28 before being caught off a top edge attempting another big hit.
And, not for the first time, Steve Snell made a valuable contribution down the order, hitting 2 fours and a six in making 25 off just 15 balls.
Vikram Banerjee was given the first over of the Essex reply and bowled it at a cost of only five runs. David Payne then did even better as his first over cost just two.
But it could have been so much better as Cook was dropped on three by wicketkeeper Jonathan Batty and off the next delivery Payne failed to hold a much more difficult caught and bowled chance.
Cook and Bopara immediately accelerated with 11 coming from Banerjee’s second over and 18 from Gemaal Hussain’s first. At the end of the power play Essex were 48 without loss.
By the halfway stage of the innings the opening partnership had extended to 83 and the Eagles looked to be coasting to victory.
So it proved as the next over from Redmond went for 15, Cook reaching his half-century off 30 balls. Bopara followed him to fifty from 37 deliveries soon afterwards off Gidman, who had become the sixth bowler employed by the Gladiators.
Richard Dawson finally made a breakthrough at the end of the 14th over, bowling Bopara with a quicker ball. But at 119-1 Essex were still very comfortably placed.
Payne had been the pick of the Gloucestershire bowlers on a ground where he recorded the best one-day figures in the club’s history in a Clydesdale Bank 40 game earlier in the season.
He forced Cook to play on with the first ball of the 18th over and Essex needed 21 off 17 balls as Styris came to the wicket.
The New Zealander ended any doubt about the outcome with a six over extra cover off Payne before being run out in a mix-up with Mark Pettini, Batty doing well to grab a wayward throw and remove the bails.
It was 152-3 and Essex required 11 from two overs. Matthew Walker hit his first ball from Gidman for six and finished the game with another maximum off the Gladiators skipper.
