Essex Eagles v Glamorgan
Vitality Blast
The Cloud County Ground
Team News:
Essex Eagles: Adam Rossington (wk), Robin Das, Michael Pepper, Dan Lawrence, Paul Walter, Tom Westley, Daniel Sams, Simon Harmer (c), Aaron Beard, Ben Allison, Sam Cook.
Glamorgan: Tom Bevan, Sam Northeast (c), Colin Ingram, Billy Root, Eddie Byrom, Chris Cooke (wk), Dan Douthwaite, Andrew Salter, Prem Sisodiya, Jamie McIlroy, Michael Hogan.
Match Details:
Umpires: Ben Debenham & Rob Bailey
Match Referee: Simon Hinks
Toss: Glamorgan, who elected to field
Result: Essex Eagles win by 69 runs
Scorecard: View Here
Match Highlights:
Match Report:
Dan Lawrence and Paul Walter’s sensational hitting fired Essex Eagles to their highest Vitality Blast total as they kept their home quarter-final dreams alive.
Lawrence thrashed 71 off 37 balls, Walter a blistering 23-ball 58 and Adam Rossington a booming 45 to take the Eagles to 254 – beating the 244 set barely two weeks ago.
Glamorgan reached 185 for seven in reply, with stand-in captain Sam Northeast pumping an unbeaten 97, to lose by 69 runs.
2019 winners Essex, who had already confirmed a knockout spot, moved to second in the South Group and will host a last-eight match if Surrey beat Somerset on Sunday.
Essex were put in and blasted it from ball one on a belting wicket with short boundaries. Robin Das struck the first of 16 sixes in the third over by pinging one over long-off before following it up with a second over deep midwicket from the next ball.
Das pulled another ball to the boundary before he skied to cover to give Jamie McIlroy a T20 wicket on debut, he would later pick up Lawrence to claim an impressive 2/32 – the only bowler to go at under 10s.
Adam Rossington powered his way to 45, having scored 95 the previous evening, with seven fours and a six off 23 balls. But his quick scoring was just the prelude for what was to come.
Michael Pepper was caught on the reverse and Rossington holed to long-on before Lawrence and Walter went ballistic with a 101-run partnership off 69 balls.
Douthwaite took the biggest tap, going for 12 and 13 in successive overs as he returned the fourth-worst bowling figures in Blast history, eventually going for 66 in four wicketless overs.
But the showpiece over for Essex was the 31 taken off Prem Sisodiya. Walter started off with four sixes before Lawrence completed the over with another maximum.
It started a final five overs where 95 runs were plundered. Walter fell for a 23-ball 58, an innings which included 6 sixes, but Daniel Sams picked up where he had left off with three sixes in his first four balls.
Lawrence had been on 18 from his first 20 balls but caught up in style to reach his 11th T20 half-century in 30 balls before eventually falling for 71. 15 came off the final over as the Eagles crashed the joint fourth-best total in the tournament’s history.
Glamorgan never looked like replicating their greatest chase of 224 – against Essex in 2017 – with three wickets falling in the powerplay.
Aaron Beard was the chief destroyer as he picked up two for 16 in his first 16 overs with debutant Tom Bevan top-edging to deep third man and Billy Root getting bowled.
Eddie Byrom and Chris Cooke were both caught, but Sam Northeast, skippering his third Blast side for the first time, stuck around and plundered a couple sixes of his own on his way to a 38 ball fifty.
Dan Douthwaite chipped in with 34 off 17 in a 62-run stand but had his stump broken by Sams. As the required rate broke passed 36, Andrew Salter and Northeast struck a few lusty blows.
Salter holed out and Northeast, needing four runs from the final ball to reach a century, ended on 97*.
In a game where 439 runs were scored, Dan Sams returned remarkable figures of 3/20 in his four overs. Aaron Beard finished with equally impressive figures of 2/16 in his three overs.
