Worcestershire 168 for 8 (Hose 50, Gorvin 3-34) beat Glamorgan 141 (Raza 4-17) by 27 runs
Worcestershire Rapids made it three Vitality Blast wins out of four with a 27-run victory over Glamorgan at New Road. Adam Hose (50 from 31 balls) and Isaac Mohammed lifted the Rapids to 168 for 8 against a well-directed attack led by Tim van der Gugten and Andy Gorvin.
It was a modest total, but too many for a Glamorgan side forced to bat for the most part in Stygian gloom. Having lost Asa Tribe and Mason Crane to Lions duty from the team which beat Somerset at Taunton the previous night, Glamorgan came in well short at 141 all out from 19.3 overs. Kiran Carlson made 35 (24) but wickets fell regularly as new batters coming in struggled to locate the ball. Sikandar Raza took 4 for 17.
Glamorgan chose to bowl and did so well, with clever changes of pace, to restrict Rapids to 42 for 2 in the powerplay. Both wickets arrived in Dan Douthwaite's first over. His first ball was lifted to mid-off by Brett D'Oliveira. His third took out Kashif Ali's middle-stump.
With the score only 66 in the tenth over, Mohammed sought acceleration and was superbly caught by Ben Kellaway right on the deep midwicket rope off Gorvin. Ethan Brookes also sent up a skier off the former Hampshire medium-pacer.
Hose struck sixes in successive overs from James Neesham and Kellaway to reach his 23rd T20 half-century, from 30 balls, but became Gorvin's third victim when he jabbed back a low return catch. At 131 for 6 with three overs left, the Rapids needed late fireworks. Usama Mir (23, 10) provided them with three sixes.
Glamorgan's reply began in gathering gloom and brought just 13 runs from the first three overs. Openers Carlson and Will Smale added 53 in 40 balls but then fell in successive overs. Carlson swept Mir to deep midwicket and, seven balls later, Smale was bowled by Raza.
Henry Hurle ladled his third ball, from Adam Finch, to long leg and Kellaway chipped a return catch to Raza as the new batters struggled to find their way to the crease, never mind see the ball, in the Worcester gloaming. Sean Dickson was bowled, backing away at Finch, before, at 68 for 5 from 10.5 overs, the umpires deemed the light not just difficult but dangerous and took the players off.
Twelve minutes later, play resumed but the batters required either night vision goggles or a miracle. Neither were available and the Rapids comfortably closed out victory, though it came at a worrying price as Finch stumbled, trying to prevent a second run, and limped off the field clearly in great discomfort.
