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Imperious Klinger leads Glos to 8 wicket win over Essex

16 June 2016

Gloucestershire enjoyed the perfect preparation for Friday night’s derby clash with Somerset as they cruised to an eight wicket win over Essex at Chelmsford.

In front of the Sky TV cameras captain Michael Klinger was in imperious form, scoring 78 from 49 balls as the visitors reached their target of 154 off  the last ball of the 17^th over.

He shared in a 126 run opening stand with Hamish Marshall (42 off 35) before Ian Cockbain (15*) and Chris Dent (10*) saw their side home.

To watch a post match interview with Benny Howell click below:

The victory was Gloucestershire’s third of the season – all of them away from home – and their first ever at Essex.

The visitors got off to a perfect start when – having won the toss - Matt Taylor (1-14) had the dangerous Jesse Ryder caught behind off the first ball of the match to an inside edge that carried to Gareth Roderick via his thigh pad.

Tom Westley and Kishen Velani staged a recovery, adding 32 in the next four overs.

Andrew Tye (1-31) entered the attack in the fifth over and put the home side on the back foot, conceding just 2.

Westley retaliated with successive fours off the opening two balls of Liam Norwell’s (1-43) over.

But the big Cornishman bounced back to bowl Velani (16) via big inside edge to make it 46-2 at the end of the powerplay.

Bopara got off the mark with a first ball six – two runs and four over throws. And with Westley looking increasingly fluent, the home side progressed to 72-2.

However Benny Howell (2-15) stemmed the flow of boundaries in his first over and removed Westley in his second, clean bowled for 45 from 36 balls. With only one run off the over – Essex reached the halfway stage on 72-2.

Big-hitting Ten Doeschate coming in to join Bopara, but he was run out in the next over thanks to a brilliant direct-hit by Dent at mid-off.

The Essex innings was punctuated with a handful of mighty blows – but the visitors continued to take wickets.

Bopara (28 off 24) fell after chipping up a simple caught and bowled to Kieran Noema-Barnett in the 15^th over. And the returning Benny Howell then picked up the wicket of Dan Lawrence via a leading edge to Klinger at short cover to make it 108-6 with five and a half overs left.

A brief but entertaining cameo from Ashar Zaidi (17 off 10) – including consecutive sixes off Noema -Barnett threatened to help the Eagles to a competitive total. But it came to a premature end when he was bowled all ends up by a Tye slower ball.

Wahab Riaz and James Foster  then took 17 off the last over from Tye as Essex finished on 153-8.

In reply Gloucestershire got off to a quiet start with 3 off the first over from David Masters.

Marshall survived a scare when he was dropped by Foster off Matt Quinn with the ball also going for 4.

Things became heated later that over when a throw from the bowler struck Klinger and words were exchanged.

This seemed to spark the Australian into life as he came down the wicket and launched Masters for a huge six straight down the ground in the third over.

Quinn had more to say to Klinger in the fourth when he had a caught behind appeal turned down. Again the Glos skipper responded, launching a pull shot into the stand for 6.

He went on to bring up his 50 off 32 balls with a flick off his hip for a single in the ninth over.

Marshall had less of the strike but he was playing his part, keeping the scoring ticking over.

At the halfway stage Glos needed just 60 from 60 balls with Klinger on 60 and Marshall on 30. And with the hard work done the experience pair continued to put on a masterclass of risk free batting.

With neither player offering so much as a half-chance it looked like they may reach the target on their own.

But the return of the fiery Quinn (1-38), brought an end to Marshall’s innings as he chopped on for 42 off 35 balls.

Ian Cockbain looked set to continue where Marshall had left off when he got off the mark first ball with a sweetly-timed cover drive for four.

But the Eagles struck again in the next over as Riaz (1-29) finally had Klinger caught behind for 78 (off 48 balls).

It was the first time Essex had dismissed the Glos opener in three matches – with Klinger scoring 308 runs.

With the skipper back in the pavilion the visitors still needed 22 from 35 balls but Cockbain and Dent calmly finished the job with 2.1 overs to spare.

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