Marshall & Cowan help Gloucestershire beat Worcestershire

Hamish Marshall and Ed Cowan put on 142 for the second wicket to lead Gloucestershire to a seven-wicket victory over Worcestershire.

Marshall (72) and Australian debutant Cowan (70) helped the hosts to 160-3 with 12 balls to spare.

The visitors earlier lost Moeen Ali to Ian Saxelby (2-29) to the fourth ball of the game and Phillip Hughes (eight), but James Cameron (32) led a recovery.

Gareth Andrew (43) and Daryl Mitchell (31) then pushed the visitors to 159-6.

Youngster Liam Norwell took 2-41 in only his second Twenty20 game for Gloucestershire.

In reply, the visitors saw Benny Howell dismissed for a duck in the first over.

That brought Marshall and Cowan together, and the pair smashed 18 boundaries between them in 15 overs, before Mitchell (2-26) got rid of both of them in successive overs.

It was left to Alex Gidman to score the winning runs with a boundary as Gloucestershire kept their quarter-final hopes alive.