Essex match cut short by rain at Cheltenham
20 July 2018
Gloucestershire's misfortune with the weather in home white ball matches this season contuned at the College Ground as their Vitality Blast T20 fixture with Essex was abandoned because of rain.
After two washouts in Bristol in the Royal London Cup, the only phase of rain forecast to fall at any point during the Cheltenham Festival started near the end of the Essex innings, with the players forced off in the penultimate over with the visitors on 172-7.
Whilst the rain was never torrential, it was steady enough to prevent a resumption and with the light also fading, umpires Ben Debenham and Alex Wharf called play off for the day at 7.30pm. Both sides take one point.
Watch Michael Klinger's views on the action which was possible here:
MATCH REACTION : Captain Michael Klinger's thoughts after the @VitalityBlast match with @EssexCricket is abandoned because of rain. pic.twitter.com/Y5r9AMaFDj
— Gloucestershire CCC (@Gloscricket) July 20, 2018
We'll never know how Gloucestershire would have fared had the game run its full course, or indeed if they could have had the minumum five overs to chase an adjusted DLS target of 64.
Tom Smith took two wickets in his last over - the 16th - to further check Essex's run rate, but until Chopra was out the run rate threatened to be a daunting one.
They had a good start, scoring 59 in the powerplay for the loss of Adam Wheater, who top edged Kieran Noema-Barnett to Gareth Roderick for 24.
Chopra had signalled his intentions with a six pulled into the packed marquees at mid wicket off David Payne in the third over, and he and Tom Westley maintained the early momentum, adding 58 before Smith - who had been powerfully swept into the Members stand by Westley - took the first of his three wickets by bowling him for 20.
By this point Chopra had reached his fifty with a sequence of four fours in seven balls off Tye and Noema-Barnett, but his dismissal by Klinger's direct hit at the bowler's end with only one stump to aim at sent the Essex innings in a different direction.
4 wickets fell in 13 balls as Lawrence - who hit a clean straight six off Smith - skipper ten Doeschate, Harmer and Bopara all went cheaply, and it took three successive boundaries by Wagner off David Payne to get Essex to 172-7 in the 19th over when the rain forced the players off.
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