CLARKE HOLDS HIS NERVE by Marcus Hook
Gloucestershire 230-8 (50 Overs) v Surrey 232-7 (49.3 Overs). Surrey win by 3 wickets.

In what proved a one-day classic, Rikki Clarke held his nerve to see Surrey home against Gloucestershire after losing his captain, Mark Ramprakash, with 37 more needed, six overs to go and boundaries hard to come by. The fifth-wicket pair put on 82 in company with one another, pulling things round from a shaky 110 for four in the 29th over.

Clarke, who finished with 62 not out off 68 balls, also chipped in with the wickets of Weston and Chandana to earn the man-of-the-match nomination. But had it not been for Martin Bicknell’s six over cover off Jon Lewis in the penultimate over the reigning C&G champions, rather than Surrey, would now be eyeing a quarter-final match-up with Hampshire on 15 July.

Gloucestershire uncharacteristically passed up on the chance to run out Ramprakash for 74 and to dismiss Clarke for 36. The former Middlesex man survived when the bowler, off-spinner Martyn Ball, missed the stumps from no more than three yards away. Four overs later his 23-year-old partner was put down by wicketkeeper Steve Adshed, who was standing up when Lewis was brought back for his second spell.

The Ovalites found the rope just sixteen times during their response to the home side’s 230 for eight, and there were only 38 boundaries in total. Seven of them were struck by Mark Ramprakash, whose 84 in 105 deliveries laid the foundations for the visitors’ three-wicket victory, which was achieved with three balls to spare thanks to Rikki Clarke’s all-run four to deep backward square leg off the first delivery of the final over – courtesy of a rare mis-field from Jon Lewis, up in the circle – which the young all-rounder followed up by angling a four down to the same region two balls later.

Prior to Clarke joining Ramprakash, Surrey did not look as if they were about to record their first one-day win for ten months against first-class opposition. Scott Newman went early when he drove Jon Lewis low to the left of Spearman at slip. Jonathan Batty, who struggled as much with the bat as he had done with the gloves, was beaten by Upul Chandana’s throw from backward point fourteen overs later. In the 26th over Graham Thorpe skied Mark Hardinges to mid-off, and in the 28th Hardinges struck again when Alistair Brown scooped the medium-pacer to mid-wicket.

Earlier, half-centuries from the Gloucestershire skipper, Chris Taylor, and Alex Gidman had turned round the home side’s innings, which seemed stalled at 71 for two after 24 overs. Tim Murtagh, who claimed three for 36 despite conceding eight runs off his opening over, picked up the wickets of Craig Spearman, caught at second slip, and Matt Windows, who dragged the ball on, before returning in the 45th over to account for Hardinges at the death.

At the Pavilion end Martin Bicknell kicked things off with an eight-over spell that cost the veteran all-rounder just 16 runs. But the inexperience, firstly, of Neil Saker, then Nayan Doshi and James Benning showed through as Taylor, who hit 74 off 87 balls, put on 59 in 16 overs with Phil Weston and 73 in 13 overs in partnership with Alex Gidman, who made an undefeated 58 from 66 deliveries.

Weston brought about his own downfall when he dabbed Clarke to Brown at slip in the 26th over. Taylor, who was stumped off a wide, also had nobody to blame but himself. His side’s defeat was the first in the C&G Trophy since July 2002.

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