T20 Blast: Essex bowlers crush Glamorgan in eight-wicket win
- Published
Essex's Dan Lawrence made 55 not out against Glamorgan
T20 Blast South Group, Essex v Glamorgan |
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Glamorgan 104 (16.5 overs): Plom 2-16, Harmer 2-21, S Cook 2-22 |
Essex 108-2 (12.2 overs): Lawrence 55*, Wheater 39 |
Essex (2 pts) beat Glamorgan by eight wickets |
A fine bowling performance saw Essex race to an eight-wicket victory over Glamorgan to keep their T20 quarter-final hopes alive.
They made light work of a target of just 105 in 12.2 overs, thanks to Adam Wheater (39) and Dan Lawrence (55 not out).
Glamorgan were bundled out inside 17 overs with their batting looking badly short of confidence.
Jack Plom, Simon Harmer and Sam Cook claimed two wickets apiece.
Plom also produced a direct hit from 60 metres to run out the dangerous David Lloyd for 21 as Glamorgan felt the absence of their best batsman Marnus Labuschagne- still in isolation as a Covid contact.
Chris Cooke (25) and Billy Root (21) also threatened to get going but Cooke drilled Harmer to cover and Root holed out on the mid-wicket boundary as they tried to accelerate.
Essex tightened their grip on the match with six bowlers claiming victims as Glamorgan saw their last six wickets crash for a mere 13 runs.
Roman Walker trapped Will Buttleman leg-before for six with his first ball, but Wheater and Lawrence soon got the scoreboard moving.
Glamorgan were missing two leading bowlers in Timm van der Gugten and Prem Sisodiya after minor injuries in the previous game, and could put no pressure on the batsmen.
The game was virtually over by the time Wheater was stumped charging at Andrew Salter, with several chances going begging.
Lawrence produced some imperious shots to see his side home with time to spare, and Essex boosted their net run-rate considerably.
Essex bowler Jack Plom told BBC Essex Sport:
"It's going well, the team are putting together some good performances and we're very happy with it. Today we were outstanding all round, we were on top for most of the game but you still have to concentrate.
"It's all about putting the hard yards in with ground-fielding practice, it pays off, and I'm happy to be out there performing well.
"The games we didn't win in this competition, we're still doing good stuff and it's just doing those little one-percenters a bit better which we have been doing in the last few games, it's paid off and we're getting results now."
Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard told BBC Sport Wales:
"It went wrong probably the moment we got off the bus, we knew we had to win all four games and we went out really positive then lost a couple of wickets.
"We needed Colin Ingram to come to the party, it wasn't to be as he got bowled off his pads, then we picked out fielders when we went for shots on a good surface, a 180 wicket.
"Roman Walker came in (bowling) with purpose and he's done terrifically well, I liked the way Sam Pearce bowled, but we dropped five catches and missed a stumping.
"It was one of those days, it's not as bad as the 31 all out in 1997 (v Middlesex in Championship), but it's one of those days where everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong."