Gloucestershire victorious at The Kia Oval
9 August 2019
Gloucestershire secured their third win of the 2019 Vitality Blast after defeating Surrey at The Kia Oval by nine runs (DLS).
165 turned out to be a good score for the visitors who looked in control up until adverse weather brought a halt to proceedings in the eighth over of Surrey’s innings. Surrey were given an amended target of 104 which meant they needed 52 off 4.1 overs. Tight bowling from Higgins, Howell and Tye sealed the victory for Gloucetsershire.
Miles Hammond started the Gloucestershire innings off with a bang hitting four fours in the first three overs to give him 21. He then smashed one of the biggest sixes of the season, crunching a Tom Curran delivery back where it came from.
Hammond accounted for 30 of Gloucestershire’s 36 before he was caught off Dernbach in the fifth over. Fellow opener Michael Klinger wasn’t able to find his rhythm and was caught off Sam Curran for 12.
A good start was not lost though as James Bracey stepped up at number three and began where Hammond left off. He was able to find the boundary five more times, but Sam Curran was on hand again to disrupt Gloucestershire’s innings.
The top two scorers for The Shire in this year’s Vitality Blast Ian Cockbain and Ryan Higgins found themselves in the middle together at four and five. The Liverpudlian fared the better of the two on this occasion, finishing with a team high 40 off 28 after biding his time and hitting his only boundaries (two fours and one six) off his final eight balls.
Tom Curran bowled the eighteenth over and picked up the wickets of Benny Howell and Andrew Tye for one and two respectively. Only two runs were scored in that over leaving Gloucestershire with some work to do in the final two overs. Jack Taylor was on hand to hit four fours as Gloucestershire made another 24 off the final two overs.
David Payne and AJ Tye began Surrey’s innings bowling economically, only allowing 14 runs in the first three overs. Chris Liddle then took the baton and took what was potentially the biggest wicket of the match, Aaron Finch who was caught behind by Bracey for 12.
Surrey found some relief through Sam Curran who found the boundary three times in three overs but Tom Smith broke the third wicket stand when Will Jacks was caught by Klinger off Tom Smith’s fifth delivery.
Play was brought to a stop five balls into Benny Howell’s first over when heavy rain struck The Kia Oval. At that stage, Surrey were 52/2 needing 114 runs from the final 12.1 overs. Rain continued before the coves finally came off and allowed play to resume at 9:30pm.
When the players returned to the field Ryan Higgins, Benny Howell and AJ Tye were tasked with seeing the game out for The Shire. Benny was hurt diving to save a run with nine balls left preventing him from bowling the final over. With 25 needed off the final over, Tye sealed the victory, allowing only 15 more runs.
The next match for Gloucestershire will be on Sunday when they face Middlesex at Radlett at 2:30pm.
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