Glamorgan v Essex Eagles
Vitality Blast
Sophia Gardens
Team News:
Essex Eagles: Tom Westley, Will Buttleman (wk), Michael Pepper, Paul Walter, Feroze Khushi, Jimmy Neesham, Simon Harmer (c), Jack Plom, Aron Nijjar, Sam Cook, Jamie Porter.
Glamorgan: David Lloyd, Nick Selman, Marnus Labuschagne, Colin Ingram, Chris Cooke (c & wk), Kiran Carlson, Dan Douthwaite, Andrew Salter, Ruaidhri Smith, Timm van der Gugten, Prem Sisodiya.
Match Details:
Umpires: David Millns & Steve O’Shaughnessy
Toss: Glamorgan, who elected to field
Result: Glamorgan won by 7 wickets
Match Highlights:
Match Reaction: Anthony McGrath
Match Report:
Essex Eagles suffered their second defeat in three days when losing by 7 wickets to Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.
Chasing down a score of 153-6, the home side eased to victory with an over to spare after Nick Selman and Marnus Labuschagne posted half-centuries.
Together they put on 110 in 13.2 overs, their century stand arriving off 70 balls, and when they were parted, the home side were just 23 runs from victory.
Selman was eventually caught and bowled by Simon Harmer for 65 having faced 45 balls and struck 9 boundaries including 2 sixes.
Three overs later with his score on 59 from 47 balls, Labuschagne holed out to Jamie Porter facing the bowling of Sam Cook but by then, just 9 more runs were required with 11 balls remaining.
Colin Ingram was 11 not out when Chris Cooke, having got off the mark with a single then drove the winning boundary off Cook.
Faced with such a modest target, the victors were able to pace their innings to reach the winning line without undue alarm.
Earlier Will Buttleman, playing only his second T20 match, top-scored for the Eagles with 36 that included six boundaries from the 26 balls he received.
He teamed up with another young gun, Michael Pepper, for the highest partnership of the innings as the pair posted 45 in 5.2 overs after Tom Westley had been dismissed for 7.
Buttleman went with the total on 71 at the start of the tenth over and Pepper followed at the end of the next over for 29 made from 24 balls, with some crisp drives and clearing the ropes on one occasion.
Jimmy Neesham scored 21 from 20 balls before he was caught in the deep straight driving a ball from Ruaidhri Smith to end a promising fifth-wicket stand with Feroze Khushi of 34 in 4.4 overs.
Khushi, another making only his second appearance for the Eagles in this format, contributed 17 before edging a leg-side delivery to the wicket-keeper leaving the Eagles 134-6 and Simon Harmer with Jack Plom to add 19 runs before the innings closed.
The Eagles made one enforced change from the side beaten by Hampshire on Friday night with Khushi drafted into the side to replace Ryan ten Doeschate who was suffering with a back spasm.
Put into bat, the innings failed to reach a consistently punishing run-rate.
At the end of the first powerplay, the scoreboard showed 49-1 and by the halfway stage of the innings, Essex were 80-2.
But hopes of accelerating at an acceptable rate of knots stalled as the Glamorgan attack bowled frugally. Just 16 runs were realised from the next four overs and although the next two realised 24 runs, only another 33 accrued from the final four overs.
