»Bracey’s ton in vain as county go out,
JAMES Bracey scored his maiden one-day century to hand Gloucestershire victory over Essex, but it was in vain as his side exited the Royal London One-day Cup.
Bracey classily crashed a hundred from 86 balls to send Gloucestershire to a four-wicket victory - but wins for Middlesex and Somerset meant the county failed to go through due to their net run-rate.
Essex posted 293 thanks to Varun Chopra’s third ton of the competition and Gloucestershire began their reply confidently, although Miles Hammond was dropped on 20 by Dan Lawrence on the square-leg boundary.
Hammond only scored one more run before he was caught behind off Simon Harmer, then Aaron Beard smashed into Gareth Roderick’s stumps.
Dent and Bracey settled the innings down and put Gloucestershire on track with the required run rate with a 117run stand., both posting half centuries – Dent from 67 balls and Bracey from 51 balls.
The partnership was broken when Dent walked following a low catch to Harmer at short midwicket and Graeme van Buuren and Jack Taylor followed in quick succession.
Beard ended with figures of three for 51 as he had Ryan Higgins well caught by Harmer running around to cover.
Gloucestershire needed 86 from 9.5 overs but Bracey maturely ticked the runs off along with Benny Howell, who had a runner after injuring his hamstring in the field.
Bracey ended with an unbeaten 113 as Howell ended the game by carting Matt Coles for six over midwicket.
Bracey said: “It was probably our best chase so far. We’ve learned a lot in this competition about how to chase and we put on the gas and consolidated and
today we timed it well.
“I have learned a lot playing white ball in this competition and I have learned you have to take it deep and use all the time you’ve got and cash in when you can.
“It was a good partnership with Benny. It is always tough with a runner but we communicated well.
“We had a period where we lost a few wickets but we knew with the depth of batting and the length of boundaries we could chase anything going into the last 10 overs.
“We are really happy with how we have approached this weekend. We came here with two tough games on the road having failed to win on the road.
“We did everything we could to get through and we are proud of what we achieved.”
Earlier, Harmer elected to bat on a good-looking wicket and Chopra enjoyed stands of 42 and 66 for the first and second wickets with Sir Alastair Cook and Tom Westley but both partnerships were ended by run outs.
Cook was called through for a quick single after flicking to square leg, before Westley greedily attempted a third run – both comfortably short of their ground after van Buuren’s throws.
Dan Lawrence and Ravi Bopara departed quickly, the former handing Bracey his maiden professional wicket.
Chopra brought up his half century in 70 balls and ticked over three figures in 129 deliveries during an 83-run stand with Rishi Patel.
Patel’s wicket saw Chopra kick on with power – demonstrated with sixes down the ground and over deep square-leg – and deftness with paddle sweeps, as he passed through 150 in 163 deliveries.
The hosts looked set for a push for 300 but Robbie White, Harmer, Chopra, Coles and Beard were all dismissed in the last six and a half overs.