Essex Men v Glamorgan Men
Vitality Blast
Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford
Thursday 12 June 2025 | 6:30pm start
Team News
Essex Men: Adam Rossington (wk), Dean Elgar, Michael Pepper, Jordan Cox, Paul Walter, Matt Critchley, Luc Benkenstein, Simon Harmer (c), Shane Snater, Sam Cook, Mohammad Amir.
Glamorgan Men: Kieran Carlson*, Will Smale, Ben Kellaway, Colin Ingram, Chris Cooke (wk), Asa Tribe, Dan Douthwaite, Timm van der Gugten, Ned Leonard, Andy Gorvin, Mason Crane.
Match Details
Umpires: David Millns & Rob White
Match Referee: Steve Davis
Scorers: Paul Parkinson & Kevin Probert
Toss: Essex won the toss and elected to bowl first
Result:
Match Reaction: Luc Benkenstein
Match Highlights
Coming soon…
Match Report
Will Smale’s personal best 65 handed Glamorgan their third Men’s Vitality Blast win of the summer, and kept Essex on zero points at the foot of the table.
Batter Smale had watched sister Sophia score a season best 24 in a losing cause for Essex against Hampshire Hawks earlier in the day, and as the older of the two, decided to win the sibling rivalry.
He put on 84 with Colin Ingram as Glamorgan piled on 220 against the low in confidence Eagles.
Luc Benkenstein launched 62 off 32, but he couldn’t prevent Essex from five defeats from five, with Mason Crane grabbing three for 24.
Glamorgan were stuck in, scored a boundary off the first ball, and stayed above 10 runs an over for the entire innings – to produce their sixth highest T20 score of all-time.
Kiran Carlson, who had scored 93 in the reverse fixture, and Ben Kellaway fell in the powerplay but 60 runs gave them the platform to explode – something Smale and Ingram did in style.
Smale had already fired two sixes into the Chelmsford neighbourhood in the first six overs, but kept spamming the airspace with two maximums on his way to a 29-ball half-century.
Not to be outdone, Ingram rocketed one off his legs and another straight down the ground, as the pair put on 84 runs in 43 balls.
But just as scores of 250 started to be dreamt up, Essex fought back. In 13 balls, they had reversed 144 for two into 152 for five.
Matt Critchley bookended the stint by having Smale dragging to long on and Asa Tribe skying down the ground, with Luc Benkenstein finding Ingram mistiming to long off in the middle.
Dan Douthwaite put the pep back into the visitor’s run-making with three huge sixes in a 12-ball 30 as Glamorgan locked in on an above-par total.
Even though Chris Cooke pulled onto his own stumps, Douthwaite and Timm van der Gugten took 34 runs off the last two overs to take them to 220.
Essex lost three wickets in the powerplay as Adam Rossington edged to first slip, Dean Elgar was caught and bowled and Michael Pepper feathered an edge behind.
On his return from England Lions duty, Jordan Cox attempted to kick the chase into gear. Two big swings off Andy Gorvin and a trio of middled fours laid a base, but an excellent long on catch saw him off.
From there, the Eagles disappeared from the contest as Mason Crane had Douthwaite slicing to point, Matt Critchley bowled, and Shane Snater holing out.
Kellaway had dismissed Cox with his left arm, he used his right to see off Simon Harmer, via a flying Govin grab at cover.
Benkenstein hammered an outrageous 24-ball fifty to give Essex some respect, but Glamorgan bowled Essex out for 180 to cruise to a 40-run demolition.
Purchase your England v India tickets!
The England Men under 19s are playing in a four day Test match at the Ambassador Cruise Line Ground this summer!
They will face India Men under 19s, including 14-year old IPL superstar Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who became the youngest player bought in an IPL auction after being selected by Rajasthan Royals. He is also the youngest player to score a century in IPL history!
Day one will begin on July 20 with the final day concluding on July 23.
Tickets are still available via our Ticket Site, so have a browse and get yourself down to CM2 to watch the next generation of international cricketers.
