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Matt Taylor defends seven in final over as Glos seal important first Blast win

29 May 2023

Matt Taylor successfully defended seven from the final over as Gloucestershire claimed their first win of this season’s Vitality Blast with a narrow success against Middlesex at Merchant Taylor’s School.

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The left-armer conceded just four, with former Gloucestershire all-rounder Ryan Higgins needing three off the final ball and attempting a paddle shot that led to him being run out for 24.

Middlesex, who remain winless in the tournament, had looked set to break their duck after skipper Stephen Eskinazi struck a half-century and Higgins and Luke Hollman shared a sixth-wicket partnership of 55 from 30 balls.

But they fell just short of the Gloucestershire total of 181 for nine, centred around Miles Hammond’s knock of 59 from 42.

Asked to bat after losing the toss, Gloucestershire began briskly with Grant Roelofsen taking 18 from Tom Helm’s second over, but the opener’s knock of 34 from 19 came to a tame end when he patted Higgins’ half-volley to mid-off.

Higgins, playing against his former county for the first time since his return to Middlesex, was expensive overall – as was his dropped catch at long-on when Hammond, with just nine to his name, took on Hollman.

The left-hander capitalised on that let-off, launching successive Blake Cullen deliveries over the fence and driving Hollman over the top for six more as he passed his half-century before chopping Cullen to point.

Joe Cracknell pouched the catch, his third of the innings – and a routine one by comparison with the second, when he raced from deep midwicket to long on and dived for a spectacular one-handed grab that removed visiting skipper Jack Taylor.

Cullen also claimed the wicket of the big-hitting Marchant de Lange to finish with three for 38, while Martin Andersson took two for 30 as Graeme van Buuren’s unbeaten 28 from 19 nudged Gloucestershire above 180.

Middlesex kept up with the required run-rate of nine at the start of their pursuit, with Cracknell sweeping Tom Smith’s first delivery to the boundary and bisecting the leg-side fielders perfectly to collect four more off David Payne.

He and Eskinazi scored freely as they accumulated a partnership of 78 from 48 but Cracknell, having reverse-swept Smith for four, was lbw for 42 from 28 attempting to repeat the shot later in the over.

Eskinazi began to impose himself on the Gloucestershire spinners, pumping van Buuren over long-on for two sixes, but Ollie Price boosted the visitors’ prospects with a single over of off-breaks that accounted for both Max Holden and Pieter Malan.

De Lange backed up Price’s double strike in the next over, firing one through Eskinazi’s defences to take out his middle stump, but Hollman and Higgins stopped the rot with their spirited counter-attack.

Hollman took two fours off Matt Taylor in quick succession and thumped Payne back down the ground for another to reach 39 from 19 before he was bowled by Price, who recorded his best T20 figures of three for 21.

Gloucestershire seamer Matt Taylor said:

“We always tell ourselves to keep believing. We felt we maybe got slightly under par but we had the belief at halfway we could defend it.

“All the guys chipped in and bowled really well. The boys who bowled towards the end managed to keep us right in it – Payney, de Lange, Ollie Price – and to finish it off in that way was really pleasing.

“I probably went for the most runs early on. I didn’t quite get it right but it was nice to come back at the end and get a second go.

“It was definitely a big game, we all knew that – in T20 cricket you can sometimes start slowly and then get on a roll. That’s what we’ll be looking to do know and hopefully we can take that momentum forward.”

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