»Taylor brothers extend county deals,
JACK Taylor offered no excuses as Gloucestershire lost their Vitality Blast T20 semi-final to by six wickets at Edgbaston.
In an 11-over match, Gloucestershire were restricted to 73 for seven by a superb bowling display led by Liam Plunkett (2-0-12-3) and Will Jacks (2-05-1).
Surrey were, in turn, made to work hard for their runs but reached 74 for four with eight balls to spare as Ben Foakes compiled a timely 20 (20 balls, no fours, one six).
“I don’t think there are any excuses,” said skipper Taylor.
“We all wanted to play and prepared to play and were very excited to get out there but we weren’t quite good enough.
“We didn’t quite sum up the conditions, I reckon we needed 15 more runs. The guys at top of order have done it for us all competition but Surrey bowled really well and we couldn’t quite get it away it in the overs.
“It’s disappointing, winning eight out of the last nine and playing amazing cricket, but then come Finals Day and we didn’t get over the line.
“We have to take the positives out of this, we are a quality T20 team but unfortunately we didn’t turn up today. We have the tools to win, but it’s just about coming back next year and putting that right.”
After the loss of the whole of Saturday to rain, play finally began at 3.15pm thanks to an improvement in the weather and also a Herculean effort by the Edgbaston groundstaff.
Put in, Gloucestershire suffered a nightmare start, reaching the end of a truncated 3.2-over powerplay on only 12 for one.
Miles Hammond sent up a skyer off Reece Topley and then, first ball after the powerplay, danger man Ian Cockbain miscued a hit at Will Jacks and perished for a duck.
Jacks conceded only five runs from his two excellent overs from the Birmingham End.
Chris Dent at least found the boundary a couple of times but fell for 17 (13 balls) when he skyed a slog-sweep at
Dan Moriarty and Jason Roy took a calm catch at mid-wicket.
Gloucestershire desperately needed impetus but the seventh over, which saw Plunkett enter the attack, only brought them more trouble.
It brought three runs and the wicket of Taylor, caught by Jacks at mid on.
Ryan Higgins (19, 14 balls) perished at the start of Plunkett’s second over which brought two more wickets. Benny Howell was the second when his defiant 21 (12 balls), which included the only two sixes of the innings, ended in pursuit of the third with another smart catch by Jacks at long on.
At a nightmare 66 for six after 10 overs, Gloucestershire needed a big final over. But it didn’t come and the staccato innings was summed up by
the last ball from Topley which Graeme van Buuren hoisted straight to deep extra cover.
Jacks and Roy launched Surrey’s reply with three fours in the first over, from van Buuren, but Gloucestershire fought tigerishly.
Roy fell to a brilliant catch by Howell, taken over his shoulder at mid-wicket, and Jacks (16, 11 balls) was bowled by a full toss by David Payne.
When Laurie Evans chopped Howell to point, in an over that cost just three runs, it was 41 for three from six overs and Surrey had work still to do.
But Rory Burns, coming in at five, delivered a calm unbeaten 12 from nine balls as Foakes struck a run-a-ball 20 and Surrey reached their target with more than an over to spare.