Essex extended their winning streak as they moved into the top four for the first time with a convincing win at Sophia Gardens.
Paul Walter starred with a career best 78 from 34 balls before taking 2-19 with the ball to help the visitors to see out Glamorgan by 51 runs after a collapse from 158-3 to 175 all out.
After electing to bat, Simon Harmer’s Essex posted 226-9 from their 20 overs, the second highest T20 score at Sophia Gardens after Surrey broke the record earlier in the week.
With injuries a worry for Glamorgan at present, the return of Timm van der Gugten from a side strain didn’t have the impact they would’ve hoped as he returned figures of 1-64.
Despite frequent wickets falling for Essex, their intentions of scoring quickly were clear after Surrey scored 236 in Cardiff just two days prior.
Feroze Khushi (17) and Robin Das (22) got the visitors off to strong start which set the way for the rest of the innings.
Michael Pepper’s flamboyant 19-ball 42 damaged Glamorgan with unconventional shots making it difficult to set fields. A ramp shot for four to get off the mark inside the powerplay was shortly followed by an advancing down the pitch, backing away slap over deep cover for six in his box office innings.
Walter smashed six sixes for his 78 to help Essex to their total, supported by Daniel Sams’ 30 from 20 balls at the back end of the innings.
Things could’ve been much worse for Glamorgan if it wasn’t for a double-wicket maiden from Ruaidhri Smith (3-33) followed by overs worth six, six and five before Pepper and Walter resumed their brutal hitting.
Glamorgan’s innings went similarly to Essex’s to begin; Kiran Carlson’s 40 from 18 balls in an opening partnership worth 76 looked to give an early glimmer of hope for the Welsh county.
Colin Ingram followed Carlson’s intent while Sam Northeast anchored the innings from the other end with scores of 48 and 46 respectively, keeping Glamorgan in contention when they needed 86 from 37 balls at Ingram’s departure.
From then on, wickets tumbled as Glamorgan fell to 175 all out with Peter Hatzoglou unable to bat with a back spasm. Wickets were shared around Essex’s bowlers as they completed the victory inside 18.3 overs, leapfrogging the hosts into the top four in the process.
Essex’s Paul Walter said: “It was a slow start for me with the bat, so I was happy to get some runs and have a good day.” He began.
“Anyone can chase anything now but with that amount on the board, you only need one or two good overs, and it can really turn the momentum so we were always confident.
Glamorgan captain, Kiran Carlson said: “We conceded too many runs, simple as that.
“We’re going to be honest with ourselves as a bowling unit and a fielding unit as something isn’t going quite right. I think it was a 200-par wicket and I think if we were chasing that, we would’ve got it, the way we were going.
“When you’re chasing that big a total you have to go from ball one and sometimes it pays off, when you’re chasing 230 something has got to go right and I think two games in a row now we’ve been chasing too many which is something myself and Mark Alleyne have got to look at.”
