Solanki best not good enough
Source -
sportinglife.com
Vikram Solanki's competition best score of 92 was not enough to save Worcestershire from defeat by a single run in a thrilling Twenty20 clash at Bristol.
Gloucestershire skipper Jon Lewis held his nerve with the visitors requiring just three off the last three deliveries and conceded only a leg bye off the last.
That meant Worcestershire finished on 180 for five in reply to Gloucestershire's
181 for seven in which Chris Taylor top scored with 61 off 37 balls.
Solanki, released from the England one-day squad to play in the match, hit two sixes and eight fours in his 61-ball innings and looked to be turning the game his side's way.
But the required run-rate remained high and when man-of-the-match Solanki was out in the 18th over it set up a nerve-tingling finish.
Former Gloucestershire player Roger Sillence had the game in his hands as he faced Lewis' final three deliveries.
But he failed to make contact with the bat and a scampered leg bye off the last was not good
enough.
It was Worcestershire's second defeat in two games. For Gloucestershire, mauled by Somerset in their first fixture, the result was marred by injuries to Taylor, Craig Spearman and Alex Gidman as they finished with three substitute fielders.
The home side had been given a blistering start by Ian Harvey after winning the toss and the 50 came up in only the fifth over.
But Harvey was caught at leg-slip off a well-timed glance to give Sillence the first of two wickets.
Discarded by Gloucestershire at the end of last season, the tall seamer took revenge by removing another danger man in Spearman, lbw for 12 with the total 56 for two in the sixth over.
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