County stumble to another T20 defeat

 So clinical in the longer formats, Gloucestershire reserved another slipshod display for the Twenty20 Cup at Bristol last night.

Warwickshire’s Jonathan Trott was the beneficiary of some uncharacteristic fielding blunders, while late fireworks from Ian Bell meant the home side’s sixth defeat in seven matches was as emphatic as they come.

Trott should have vacated the scene with five to his name, only for the Gladiators’ fielding coach Chris Taylor to put down a sharp chance and deny Steve Kirby the breakthrough.

Kirby was rewarded in the fourth over, Craig Spearman the catcher at slip to dismiss Neil Carter, but Trott had another life on 13 when Steve Adshead failed to gather an edge standing up to Jon Lewis.

Trott and Jim Troughton put on 46 at a relatively sedate pace, Troughton eventually falling to Vikram Banerjee courtesy of David Brown.

Warwickshire’s response was to up the ante, Ashes hopeful Bell producing some beefy hits.

He raced to 42 off 22 balls before scooping Banerjee to Hamish Marshall, and Gloucestershire’s fate was sealed with 3.5 overs to spare.

Spearman had been happy to relinquish the Gloucestershire captaincy and give Will Porterfield a go, but his mood darkened in the second over when he slashed Rikki Clarke to Steffan Piolet.

Clarke struck again in his next over, Porterfield driving straight to Ant Botha, and already Gloucestershire appeared dangerously light on batting resources.

Taylor looked in decent fettle before over-ambition got the better of him and he was stumped off Piolet, leaving Marshall as the last specialist wielder of willow.

He did not make it past the midway point of the innings, Piolet clinging on to a catch a midwicket to get Botha in on the act.

James Franklin briefly raised home spirits with a six off Botha which spilled somewhat comically through the hands of Jeetan Patel on the ropes.

But Botha had the last laugh by cleaning up the Kiwi, and his flighted spin claimed another scalp when Adshead holed out to Clarke at long-off.

Richard Dawson produced the Gladiators’ biggest hit, launching Neil Carter into the temporary seats, and his partnership of 42 in 31 balls with Brown restored some sorely-needed momentum.

But his departure to Clarke via Botha’s safe hands on the boundary was followed by an exemplary 20th over by Patel, who bagged three wickets in four deliveries.

Lewis was bowled, top scorer Brown succumbed to a stunning catch by Trott at mid-off and Kirby was trapped leg before.