T20 Blast: Paul Walter stars as Essex claim 51 run victory over Glamorgan
- Published
Essex all rounder Paul Walter in action at Sophia Gardens
Vitality Blast, South Group: Glamorgan v Essex Eagles |
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Essex Eagles 226-9 (20 overs): Walter 78, Pepper 42; Smith 3-33 |
Glamorgan 175 all out (18.3 overs): Ingram 48; Walter 2-19 |
Essex (2 pts) beat Glamorgan by 51 runs |
Paul Walter starred with both bat and ball as Essex claimed a 51 run victory over Glamorgan in the Welsh capital.
Walter anchored the Eagles' innings, top scoring with 78, before claiming two wickets as his side held hosts Glamorgan to 175 all out.
Essex batted well down the order, with Michael Pepper hitting 42 and Daniel Sams 30.
Colin Ingram's 48 was the top score for Glamorgan in the evening sunshine of Sophia Gardens.
Sam Northeast and captain Kiran Carlson made strong starts with 46 and 40 respectively, but Glamorgan fell away.
Essex put up 35 runs in the first three overs before Jamie McIlroy got Robin Das to pop up to Peter Hatzoglou at short third.
Pepper wasted no time in adding to the total, scooping fours over wicketkeeper Chris Cooke.
Scotland's Ruaidhri Smith brought the scoring to a halt in the sixth over with a double-wicket maiden. Feroze Khushi went caught by Ingram before Smith forced Josh Rymell to cut to Timm van der Gugten at third man.
Essex regained momentum over the next few overs, building to 101-3 at the halfway point and Hatzoglou's dismissal of Pepper, leg before for 42, was just a bump in the road.
Walter accelerated the scoring, reaching his 50 off just 24 balls as he claimed a new personal T20 career best, including 6 fours and 6 sixes, before being sent back by Hatzoglou in the 17th over.
Essex kept producing, despite losing three wickets in the final two overs, setting Glamorgan a second 200-plus chase in the space of three days.
Glamorgan openers Carlson and Northeast got the chase off to a strong start, putting up 76 before losing a wicket with the last ball of the seventh over.
Carlson hit a season-best score of 40 off just 18 balls before being caught by Sam Cook off Matthew Critchley.
Like the visitors, Glamorgan's scoring hit a lull in the overs following the power-play, and Northeast fell, bowled by Critchley, as he tried to press on.
Ingram hit two fours and a six in the 13th over to seemingly reignite the chase, but lost his wicket the following over, caught on the boundary by Critchley off Shane Snater.
Cooke scored 15 runs in the 15th over, but he and Billy Root were caught and bowled by Walter off successive deliveries to effectively end the Glamorgan chase as the required run rate climbed over 15.
The wickets tumbled after that, with the ninth wicket ending the game, as Hatzoglou did not bat due to a back spasm.
Essex leapfrog Glamorgan for fourth place in the Southern Group table, their fifth win in seven matches, as they return home to face Somerset in the Championship on Sunday, 11 June.
Glamorgan travel to Division Two leaders Durham on the same day, before Essex host Glamorgan on Friday 16 June in a gruelling county schedule.
Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson told BBC Sport Wales:
"We just conceded too many runs, simple as that. We're going to be honest with ourselves as a bowling unit and a fielding unit, there's obviously something not going quite right that we're going to try and fix.
"When you're chasing that big a total, you've got to go from the off. Sometimes it might work, but when you're chasing 230, you are going to lose wickets and something has to go especially right in order to chase it down.
"We've been chasing too many runs two games in a row now so it's something for us to look at; myself as skipper and Mark Alleyne as coach as well.
"I have every confidence in the bowlers that have been playing in the past two games. I think our squad depth is there, and it's just about execution more than personnel at the minute."
Essex all-rounder Paul Walter told BBC Radio Essex:
"A good evening for me, a bit of a slow start to the competition for me with the bat, so I'm happy to get some runs tonight.
"I think T20's a funny game - anyone can chase anything now. But with that amount on the board, all you need is one or two good overs and you can really turn the momentum in your favour.
"Even when they were getting away at the start, we were still confident that we could turn it around.
"I thought their openers played really nicely and got off to a flyer, so sometimes you've just got to respect that. They played well and you just hope you can get them out and really turn the screws."