Gladiators earn thrilling win
Source -
sportinglife.com
Gloucestershire Gladiators made it back-to-back Twenty20 Cup wins on successive nights with a pulsating three-run victory over Warwickshire Bears.
Mark Hardinges' maiden half-century in the competition underpinned the Gladiators' total of 188 for six at Edgbaston.
The Bears then shrugged off the loss of early wickets to reach the last over needing 14.
But Tony Frost's onslaught of 33 from 13 balls was in vain as they fell just short on 185 for eight.
Key Gloucestershire batsmen Craig Spearman and Alex Gidman were ruled out by ankle and thigh injuries respectively and those absentees looked costly for the Gladiators when, after choosing to bat, they lost both openers in the first two overs.
But Hardinges underpinned a recovery with an intelligent 51 from 35 balls with two sixes and three fours.
He found three useful partners, adding 41 in 21 balls with Chris Taylor, 48 in 35 with Matt Windows and 33 in 15 with David Brown.
Taylor lashed 14 from three successive balls by James Anyon, who finished with the worst figures by a Warwickshire bowler in Twenty20 - his four overs went for 60 runs and he took one wicket.
But the Bears stuck at it well and Steve Adshead's unbeaten 22 took up 18 balls in the closing overs.
The Bears' reply began in helter-skelter fashion. At the end of the first over, from Carl Greenidge, the score was 13 for two after Neil Carter played on and Navdeep Poonia edged to slip.
Before the end of the fifth over they were joined in the pavilion by Mark Wagh, who mis-hooked to square-leg, and Jim Troughton, pinned lbw by a Greenidge yorker.
Jonathan Trott and Michael Powell stopped the rot briefly before Trott, with 28 from 27 balls, was brilliantly caught and bowled by spinner Martyn Ball.
Powell raced to 36 from 22 balls but then clipped Hardinges straight to mid-wicket before skipper Heath Streak kept his side in the hunt with a ferocious 30 from 22 balls.
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