Vitality Blast: Walter’s best sees Essex past Glamorgan

A career-best 78 from Paul Walter set up a 51-run victory as Essex posted an impressive 226-9 in their Vitality Blast match against Glamorgan in Cardiff.

It was the second-highest total ever made at Sophia Gardens with only the Surrey score made two days earlier above the Essex effort.

Essex lost wickets regularly but kept on coming at the Glamorgan bowlers. The innings had just one stand of more than 50 runs but there were important contributions throughout. 

Glamorgan started well in their chase but fell away as they looked to keep up with the rate. Colin Ingram top scored with 48 but no batter made a half century as they were bowled out for 175 with Peter Hatzoglou unable to bat. 

It was Glamorgan’s second home defeat in a row to leave them with a record of four wins and three losses, with Essex now above them in the table with five wins and two defeats.

Essex got off to a flying start having won the toss and elected to bat and after the first five overs they had reached 67-1 with Timm van der Gugten’s return from injury greeted by the Essex batters smashing him around the park.

Van der Gugten’s first two overs went for 38 runs as Robin Das, Feroze Khushi and Michael Pepper all took the attack to Glamorgan. 

It looked as if Essex could have a truly remarkable score at the end of their six-over PowerPlay, but the last over of the fielding restrictions from Ruaidhri Smith was a double-wicket maiden.

Smith had Khushi dismissed when he drilled a ball hard and low to Ingram at mid-on and claimed a second wicket from the last ball of the PowerPlay when he had Josh Rymell caught at point. 

Walter was the next man in and he, along with Pepper, continued to attack, with the rate rarely dropping below 10 an over throughout the innings. Pepper made 42 from just 19 balls when he was trapped lbw by Hatzoglou. 

Walter was the star for Essex with a best-ever 78 from 34 balls that contained six sixes. He was dismissed when he drove a ball from Hatzoglou to long off and Ingram took a simple catch. 

The lower order, led by Daniel Sams, took Essex well past 200 to give Glamorgan a target that would be a record chase on this ground. 

Glamorgan began their pursuit of the 227-run target with a very impressive performance inside the PowerPlay as Kiran Carlson and Sam Northeast took the score to 65 without loss inside six overs and shared a stand of 76 before Carlson was well caught off the bowling of Matt Critchley for 40 from 18 balls.

Northeast followed up his 76 against Surrey on Wednesday with a well-made 46 before he also fell to Critchley, bowled while using his feet to get down the track. 

That wicket brought together Glamorgan’s in form pairing of Ingram and Chris Cooke with the issue the same as in the game against Surrey – they needed something record-breaking to get their team over the line.

With 118 needed from just 53 balls when their partnership began Glamorgan needed one of these two to be batting at the end of the match. As it was they both made decent starts but failed to kick on. 

Ingram was caught on the boundary by Critchley off the bowling of Shane Snater for 46 and Cooke was caught and bowled by Walter.

When Billy Root was dismissed the next ball, also caught and bowled by Walter, Glamorgan were five down and needed to score at 16 runs an over. 

Wickets tumbled at the end to leave them a long way short as they went from 158-3 to 175 all out, with Hatzoglou not coming out to bat as their extensive injury list got longer. 

“A good evening for me, a bit of a slow start to the comp for me with the bat so very happy to get some runs tonight,” said Walter.

“T20 is a funny game, anyone can chase anything now. But with that amount on the board all you need is one or two good overs and it can really turn the momentum in your favour.

“Even when they were getting away at the start we were still confident that we could turn it around and a couple of good overs and we could swing it back in our favour. 

“If you held your length and bowled it top of the stumps straight it was actually pretty difficult to get away. If you do get hit it flies off here, fairly small boundaries and a good wicket. You have to be very precise and batters are allowed to play well.

“Their openers played really nicely and got off to a flier so sometimes you just have to respect that. They played well. And you just have to hope that you can get them out and really turn the screws. 

“It has been a good block, historically we have always been slow starters in the comp so to win five out of seven is a great start and we are just looking to carry that momentum forward.”