Lewis clanger hands Surrey victory
Gloucestershire 230-8, Surrey 232-7: Surrey win by three wickets
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Your support makes all the difference.In the end it all came down to the final over and one embarrassing moment in the field. Surrey needed seven runs for their first one-day win against a first-class side this season; Gloucestershire, winners of this Trophy for the last two years, needed three wickets.
In the end it all came down to the final over and one embarrassing moment in the field. Surrey needed seven runs for their first one-day win against a first-class side this season; Gloucestershire, winners of this Trophy for the last two years, needed three wickets.
The first ball of the over was a full toss that was clipped by Rikki Clarke towards the waiting Jon Lewis at short fine leg. It seemed innocuous enough.
England's newest squad member Lewis prepared to gather the ball when the unthinkable happened. The luckless fielder was nutmegged, the ball rolling through his legs and on towards the boundary.
While Lewis was gathering himself and then giving chase, Clarke and his partner, Tim Murtagh, set off at a gallop. By the time Lewis caught up with the ball just short of the rope the Surrey pair had run four anyway.
A couple of balls later Clarke smacked the winning runs over the square leg boundary to inflict on Gloucestershire their first defeat in this tournament since the 2002 quarter-final.
It undid some great work by the Gloucestershire captain Chris Taylor who had scored a fine half-century to help give his side a competitive total. Alex Gidman also weighed in with a valuable fifty on a pitch that held occasional sharp bounce.
Murtagh was the pick of the visiting bowlers with a commendable three for 36, while Martin Bicknell was a model of economy.
Then Surrey's captain, Mark Ramprakash, emulated Taylor with a patient innings that provided a platform that the usual big-hitters should have capitalised on. But Alistair Brown, Scott Newman and James Benning all perished too readily. Graham Thorpe did not quite settle and it was left to Clarke with his 68-ball half-century and, briefly, Bicknell to get them close enough for the coup de grâce - or rather, that last over coup de grass.
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